A New Path
by Reader101w
Summary: The sequel to 'The Road Ahead', and the second story in my 'The Way of Life' arc. Kim and Ron face life after High School.
1. Highs and Lows

It took a while, but here is the first chapter of the sequel to 'The Road Ahead'. This story begins right at the end of the first story. Kim and Ron will now have to face life after High School.

**Disclaimer: **Kim Possible and related are the property of Disney which, contrary to common belief, I do not own.

Thanks to _Slipgate _for beta-reading this chapter and coming up with great suggestions and ideas.

* * *

**A new path**

**Chapter 1: Highs and Lows**

Kim and Ron were enjoying the beautiful sunset in the Pacific while sitting propped up on a blanket and holding hands.

"One more sunset?" Ron asked.

Kim smiled and nodded. "Okay, but then we really have to head home… we're closing in on Japan anyway."

The teens got into the Sloth and flew off in a westward direction, catching up with the setting sun.

* * *

"It's really happening, our boy did it."

"And you doubted him."

"He seemed to lose his edge… once we get him in charge that will all change."

"Yes, but we still need to get there in time with our lawyers or she will figure out a way out of this."

"No she won't; she got arrested by the big dog himself, even though Will did the actual arrest."

"So Will won't be there when we get there? That could be trouble."

"No, him being there would only make him look like an usurper. We have to take the reins and assign him. The plan is solid."

"That invasion came just at the right time, didn't it?"

"It would have been better if we had received word in advance. Now we almost lost a day getting there."

The two politicians, together with a small army of lawyers, stepped into their own private jet and set out for Global Justice headquarters.

* * *

"Wow…"

Shego grinned, still feeling lightheaded herself. "Yeah, that was pretty good."

Drakken's eyes were wide as he continued staring at the ceiling. "Wow…"

After receiving a medal of honor and the promise of a full pardon, after the reception that followed, and after Drakken's slightly bizarre show of affection by using his plant power to pull Shego into a hug of sorts, the two villains had decided to return to one of the backup lairs to recover a bit from the past few days.

They got to about five minutes over the ocean when the fever started.

Shego was still not sure which of them had acted first; she could only vaguely remember flipping the autopilot switch, preventing them from crashing into the water, before she made a dive for the blue-skinned villain.

What happened in the next couple of hours was nothing more than a vague memory, although Shego knew that somewhere in the ocean floated a blue lab coat and a black and green jumpsuit.

"Wow…"

Shego chuckled and snapped her fingers in front of Drakken's eyes. "Ok Dr. D, snap out of it."

Drakken blinked and seemed to come to his senses. Then he looked at his former employee – "_Can't really call her that anymore." _– who was lying next to him.

"So… what now?"

Shego shrugged. "We'll get a shower, get dressed, and eat some breakfast."

"Shego! You know what I mean, what about us?"

Shego grinned; toying with Drakken was even more fun now. "We'll have to go over to Global Justice to get that pardon, unless you want to try to win back the villain world after saving Earth."

Drakken frowned. "Good point, and that pardon will give us lots of opportunities… Shego! Stop distracting me. How will we go on after… well, after last night?"

For once, Shego felt that a sarcastic remark would do damage even she didn't want to occur. "Well, last night was madness… and I mean that in a good way. But you have to admit we were not really thinking."

Drakken seemed to get more and more uncomfortable. "Well, we can think now."

But Shego wasn't about to let him get away like that. "What do you want?"

"You." Drakken clasped his hands over his mouth the moment he had said it, but it was already too late. Shego sat partially up and looked at the former villain with a strange look of curiosity.

"Maybe we should discuss this at breakfast," Drakken said meekly, "after we've had time to think about it."

Shego stared at him a little longer, and Drakken couldn't help noticing that the corners of her mouth turned upward a bit. "I think you're right." She then got up and walked to the shower, smirking as she heard Drakken gasp at the sight she gave him.

* * *

"Hi mom," Kim said to the image of her mother that was displayed on the Sloth's communication system. "Sorry we only left that one short message. But we just really needed a little time out."

"That's okay honey," Kim's mother said. "We're glad you two are okay." She took a step back from the screen so that Kim's father also became visible. "Since our house took quite some damage from the Lowardian invasion, Dean and Jean invited us to stay with them."

The look on her parents' faces and the slight gulp she heard from Ron made Kim's weirdar go off at all levels. "What kind of damage to the house?"

"Kim, just come over to Ron's home, we'll talk about it there."

But Kim shook her head, now in a complete worry. "I-I need to know. Ron, we'll head over to my house first."

Seeing their daughter wouldn't take no for an answer, Kim's parents conceded. "Okay… it's pretty bad. We'll meet you two there."

* * *

"Pretty bad is an understatement," Kim muttered as she stared at the flattened terrain that used to be her home. "They aimed at this, didn't they?" She looked at Jim and Tim when she said that.

Her brothers nodded slightly. "Yeah, from the footage from our satellite we found out one of the walkers landed right on top of it."

Kim took a shivering breath and felt her parents walk up next to her and each put an arm around her. "I… I didn't know they would… that they could…"

"It's not your fault Kimmie," her father said, "it's never the fault of good people if bad people take offense at their actions."

"I guess you're right," Kim muttered, fighting back tears. "But I still put you at a tremendous risk."

"And we're willing to take that risk without hesitation for all the good you give to the world." Her mother said with a smile.

Ron had stood beside the family moment, not sure how to act. But as he looked around, he noticed a piece of plush lying in the street.

Immediately recognizing the present he had given Kim many years ago, despite the damage it had taken, Ron was unsure what to do next. But Kim had already walked up to him, wanting to include him in the group hug. "What have you got there, Ron?"

Kim gasped when she saw the badly damaged Pengaroo, and suddenly she couldn't hold back the tears anymore.

"KP?" Ron was now really unsure of how to react, except hold his girlfriend as she cried on his shoulder. "We can fix it, or we can buy a new one…"

"That's not it," Kim sniffed, "sure we can repair Pengaroo, and rebuild the house… we did that before… but everything inside, the memories, the photos… everything that was us…"

"We're still here," Ron said, "we can make new memories…" He looked helplessly at Kim's parents.

Kim's parents had stood aside for the moment, but now they joined the hug. "Kimmie, do you really think a rocket scientist and a neurosurgeon with kids like the three of you… make that four of you… were not prepared for this?"

Kim blinked back some tears and looked at her father. "You prepared for an alien invasion?"

"Not that per se, but we did make copies of every picture we've taken, and even some replicas of some of the prizes you've won. After the Diablo incident, your mother and I decided to have the basement reinforced and stash our copies there… and some of the originals while we kept the copies around the house."

Jim frowned. "Why didn't you tell us?"

Mr. Dr. Possible smirked. "Because you would have tried to figure out something that could break into Hephaestus reinforced steel."

Jim and Tim didn't know how to react to that, so they remained silent. Kim, on the other hand, seemed to have restored her confidence. "So the basement is still intact?"

"Uhm," Mr. Dr. Possible rubbed his neck. "We haven't really checked yet."

He took out a small remote and pressed a couple of buttons. Within seconds a small rumble could be heard in the remains of the house. And a while after that a hatch opened in the front yard.

"Seems to be working," Kim's father said, but Kim had already rushed into the basement.

"It's all there!" she exclaimed moments later when she emerged with a box filled with pictures. "Daddy, you're the best."

They looked through the rubble of the house for a while longer, but their home had really been shattered. The only small consolation was that their super premium insurance included attacks from outer space – and charged heftily for it – and that a couple of construction organizations had already offered their services for restoring the Possible residence; some to repay a favor, some so they could claim they had helped rebuild Kim Possible's house. The Possibles quickly agreed that they preferred someone who genuinely wanted to help them.

Shortly after, they headed for the Stoppable house, which had sustained no damage whatsoever, and tried to get the small amount of spare clothes placed and sleeping arrangements settled.

* * *

"I'm surprised your plants didn't do anything last night," Shego commented as she watched one of Drakken's vines grab the bottle of peanut butter from across the table.

Drakken shrugged, slightly uncomfortable. "I'm not entirely sure how they work." He had not finished when a new set of petals formed around his neck.

Shego grinned. "That I did see a lot last night… it was actually a nice touch."

The mirth did not last long, and soon Drakken and Shego were eating breakfast in uncomfortable silence.

Drakken was the first to say anything. "So… uhm… how do we continue after this?"

"I guess sleeping with the boss is not a great idea, huh?" Shego replied. "Besides, my contract is automatically disbanded when you turn to the good side."

"What?" Shego actually felt the pain herself when she saw Drakken's crestfallen expression. His sandwich dangled in his suddenly limp hands as he looked at her like a lost puppy.

"I'm not saying I'm quitting," Shego hastened to say – "_Wow, never thought I'd say something like that."_ – "But, well… I don't think our working relation works out with what we have now."

"So you do want to give this a try?"

"_Walked right into that one…"_ Shego was silent for a moment as she actually thought about it. "You know what, I think I do want to give this a try."

* * *

The Stoppable house was beginning to get a bit stuffed with the addition of the Possible clan. Fortunately Slim and Joss had offered to take Nana home with them until transportation back to Florida could be arranged.

It had been agreed that Mr. and Mrs. Dr. Possible got the guest room. Jim and Tim had opted to stay in the tree house, but couldn't; the building had not gained stability since a year before and it needed some serious repair before people could safely stay inside for a prolonged amount of time.

So the twins would bunk with Ron while Kim shared the baby room with Hana, who fortunately slept through the night these days.

By the time everything was set up, it was only early afternoon. Kim and Ron were deciding on what to do for the rest of the day when a black car pulled up.

Kim immediately recognized the driver as Agent Smith, and she concluded that the man sitting next to him would be Agent Smith.

"Can we help you?" she asked. But then the backseat door opened and an elderly man stepped out.

"Yes, I think you can help us very much. Kim Possible, we immediately need your help at the Global Justice headquarters."

* * *

Betty Director was not ready to give up yet.

Will Du had brought her to a safe house that was also often used to detain criminals to make sure their associates didn't come after them. For some reason the agent seemed very confident, so confident even that he hadn't even bothered to properly detain her, and he had turned his back on her after sending the other GJ agents away.

"Before you strike me down," Will suddenly said, shocking Dr. Director because that was exactly what she had just been considering, "you might want to ask me what is going on."

"I think we're past that," she said, but she did not try to make a move at her former number one agent anymore, at least for now. "But sure, why don't you enlighten me."

Will chuckled as he turned around. "This is the first time I've ever managed to pull the wool over your eyes. But it was also necessary."

Dr. Director eyed him suspiciously with her good eye. "Say what you want to say, Will."

"Why don't I let the images speak for themselves." Will switched on the television. It started to play what appeared to be a live image of the Global Justice headquarters. "We may have to wait for a little while, but I'm sure you will enjoy this."

* * *

"So can you now tell us what is going on?" Kim asked, slightly irritated.

The man had introduced himself as Z – and expanded that to Zachary when Kim merely arched an eyebrow – and had claimed to stand above Dr. Director. A quick call to Wade had confirmed the man's high security status, but not much more.

Eventually, Kim's inability to refuse a request for help had led to her and Ron agreeing to see what was going on at GJ.

Zachary merely smiled. "I could, but that would go against the request my associate made."

"Look mister," Ron replied, "neither of us is really in the mood for playing games. KP lost her home for crying out loud."

"Besides, what good can we do if we don't know what we're up against?" Kim added.

Their host gave them another smile, though this one was more saddened. "You are not yet able to fight what you are up against. However, Global Justice needs you if they want to come out of this as the organization they used to be."

Kim wanted to say more, but they had already arrived at one of the tunnel entrances that led directly to the GJ headquarters.

The car stopped and the trio stepped out and into one of the waiting tube rides. This one actually had seats.

"Wow, I didn't even know GJ had these," Ron commented as he sat down in the surprisingly comfortable seat.

"It would be a shame to spoil all surprises, wouldn't it?" Zachary replied. "Besides, at my age the usual rides are a bit too rough. I prefer some subtleness."

* * *

"We have permission to land at the Global Justice airport."

"That's odd. I thought we had to pull out a lot of laws before they gave up."

"Maybe Will has already convinced everyone."

"That would save us a lot of valuable time. Pilot, set the plane down. There's no use waiting for them to change their mind."

* * *

The Global Justice headquarters was frantic with activity, and it appeared to Kim that several agents did not belong to the crime-fighting organization.

"Where's Dr. Director?" she asked, but Zachary seemed to be busy talking to some of his people.

"They just arrived?" the elderly man asked with a slight grin as he addressed his assistant. "I know I'm supposed to be impartial, but I can't wait to see how this will develop."

Frowning at the slightly child-like glee emanating from Zachary, Kim decided to ask again. "What is going on?"

But then the door opened again and a man and a woman all but barged in, closely followed by a small army of well-suited lawyers.

"Ah, Mr. and Mrs. Du, how nice of you to drop by," Zachary said in greeting.

Ron's eyes widened. "Will's parents? Really, what is going on?"

However, the teens were pulled into the background by Zachary's assistant. "You better let Z work this one out."

Will's parents smiled at Zachary in a way that dripped insincerity. "Mr. Z, we cannot express how pleased we are that you finally took our warnings into account and relieved Dr. Director from duty."

Kim gasped, but a restraining hand on her shoulder prevented her from interrupting. When she looked back, she saw Z's assistant shaking his head.

Zachary merely nodded. "Yes, it became quite clear that Global Justice could no longer work under this strain. It is therefore imperative that the leadership of the organization is placed on a capable person who is immune to blackmail and corruption."

Mr. Du nodded eagerly. "While it may be impossible to find one that spotless, I do think we have the perfect candidate available."

"Impossible, you say?" Zachary couldn't repress a hint of a grin. "But I agree about the perfect candidate."

"Great," Mrs. Du replied, "then you wouldn't mind us being there at the inauguration?"

Zachary's grin was now obvious, despite him trying to hide it. "It would be a true pleasure, and given the circumstances I would prefer to start right away."

Mr. Du frowned. "Isn't Will currently guarding Dr. Director?"

"Why yes, but don't worry, he does have a direct video connection. And he assured me that he is perfectly happy to watch it from the holding facility along with Dr. Director."

Z's statement was met with several confused frowns, but since he had the initiative, he decided to continue.

"Kimberly Anne Possible."

While Kim had already been witness to the conversation, Z's calling to her caused her to look at him with surprise.

"Given your status as a Global Justice agent, combined with the fact that you took on the duty to lead the organization in absence of its leader, I hereby instate you as the commander of Global Justice for at least the duration of Dr. Director's trial."

* * *

"WHAT?"

Even on the small TV screen, Kim's shock was obvious.

Will grinned. "I'm so glad I'm taping this. Even after coming to terms with her being plainly better than me, this is pure gold."

Betty had not been able to speak much, but that could have been because her jaw seemed almost unhinged. "You-you planned _this_ out?"

"With the help of Z himself," Will replied smugly. "And he was right. Not to be cruel, but the shock on my parents' faces is even better than that on Kim's."

Betty slumped down and held her hands up in defeat as realization set in. "You've been planning this for months, haven't you?"

Will nodded. "Although we had to improvise a bit after the invasion. We wanted to wait it out a little longer and have everything set up more properly. But I think this worked out just as well."

"So, what now?"

Will turned more serious. "There will still be a trial to determine how Global Justice could have degenerated so much, and I _am_ going to take my responsibilities in that. But with Kim in the hot seat, we actually have the time to sit this out without the risk of GJ falling apart after all."

"I'm not sure whether to thank you or slap you," Dr. Director said. "I think I'll let that depend on the outcome of the conversation at the headquarters."

* * *

Zachary had to admit that Will Du had been right; the look on Kim's face was indeed priceless, but now it was time for more serious action.

Kim, on the other hand, was in a complete stupor, and Ron wasn't doing much better. "What do you mean? You can't just appoint me as the leader of GJ."

"She's right," one of the lawyers agreed, "she may have saved the planet, but that doesn't mean she is trained for this."

And with that, the pieces suddenly fell into place for Kim. "All that GJ training I've been doing! You set this up!" She pointed an accusing finger at Zachary. "Somehow you, Will and Dr. Director goaded me into taking that training."

Z smiled and nodded. "Almost correct. Dr. Director had no part in this."

The lawyers of the Du family weren't about to give up. "As you have just admitted, this was set up. And Miss Possible does not seem inclined to take your offer."

"This has nothing to do with willingness, or with offers," Z said with a grin. "This is strict playing by the rulebook, and I know you are very familiar with the rules regarding Global Justice."

He gestured to his assistant, who handed him a small stack of papers. "Miss Possible has signed an agreement to lead Global Justice in the face of a breakdown of communications or in the absence of the current leader. However, the contract also expands to taking over duty when the current commander is lawfully suspended from duty."

"But… that's just if KP wants to take the role of commander, right?" Ron asked.

"We were not willing to take the risk of Miss Possible disagreeing," Zachary replied, "so we made sure the language of the contract is binding for all parties."

"I though that was just so Will couldn't squirm out of it," Kim muttered. "Wait, Will already knew about this when we were nearly caught during that stupid challenge?"

Z shrugged. "The bunker was designed not to be detected. We were aiming for just forcing you to spend a few days in boredom. But even if you were captured, we could just pay the ransom."

Kim sighed. "Mind if I have Wade take a look at it?"

"By all means." Zachary handed her a copy of the contract. "And I assume you also want one?" He had his assistant also give several copies to the group of lawyers.

* * *

It didn't take long before both Wade and the lawyers had to agree that the contract was solid, much to Kim and Will's parents' dismay. That was probably one of the few things they could agree on.

"Would you rather have them take command of Global Justice?" Zachary inquired when he noticed Kim's expression.

"No," Kim was forced to admit. "But it would have been nice to keep us in the loop."

"One can't please everyone," Zachary replied with a chuckle. Then, in a lower voice, he added, "Now, I would like to instate you before those lawyers find ways to stall the process."

* * *

"I can't believe it. You did it…" Betty said while shaking her head as she and Will watched Will's parents and their lawyers walk back to their plane, seemingly defeated.

"Thanks for the vote of confidence," Will replied with a sarcastic grin.

Betty sighed. "I'm sorry, but you have to understand how I felt about this for the past year."

"Don't worry about that," Will said, "What's past is past. But we're far from done yet. Knowing my parents, they will not give up this easily."

Dr. Director couldn't help but to smile; the future finally looked a bit brighter. "We'll get through this. If two teenagers and two villains can save the planet, we can save Global Justice."

* * *

Instating Kim as the new commander of Global Justice took a surprisingly short time.

"No need for ceremony, right?" Zachary said dryly as he led Kim and Ron to Dr. Director's office.

"Can I have a word with Dr. Director?" Kim asked. "I feel it's wrong to just barge in and take over."

Z thought about that for a moment. "You can speak with her tomorrow, but it has to be interrogation-style, so there will be a recording of the meeting. The Dus will use any connection between you and Dr. Director to weaken your position and then we're back to square one."

"But we've been dealing with her for years now," Ron pointed out.

"True," Zachary admitted. "But there is no official evidence of a personal investment in Global Justice or Dr. Director for you, and I want to keep it that way until this whole thing is resolved."

"I guess I can live with that." Kim looked at the desk apprehensively, still not entirely sure how this had happened. "Just for the sake of argument, what would you have done if I had refused the position?"

The elderly man shrugged. "We would have taken the contract you signed as an agreement, and then we'd probably tie you to the desk chair and give you three meals a day and maybe some games to keep you occupied."

Kim stared at the man, unable to determine whether he was serious or making one of his sarcastic jokes. She decided to go for the latter. "Well… so, what am I supposed to do?"

"You've had your training. You should know by now." Z grinned as he turned around. "I have other business to attend to, but I'm sure I will see you in the future."

* * *

When Kim and Ron returned back to Ron's home later that day, their parents were curious what had been the problem, and whether their children had been sent on yet another mission so shortly after the Lowardian invasion.

"Not exactly like that," Kim said, "but I don't have to worry about finding a job for the summer."

"You mean you get paid?" Ron asked.

"Doy." Kim rolled her eyes. "Do you think GJ works only with volunteers? We are the exceptions there."

"Aw man," Ron muttered, "I'd have signed up too if I had known that."

Kim chuckled. "I clearly remember you getting all worked up about all the paperwork that was part of the job."

"Well… yes… but it still pays better than Smarty Mart."

"Mind filling us in a bit?" Mr. Dr. Possible asked; so far, the Possible and Stoppable parents had no clear idea of what happened at Global Justice.

Kim briefly explained the sitch.

"While I do partly understand their motives, I don't much care for their 'keep everyone out of the loop' attitude," Kim's mother said.

"Me too," Kim replied, "but that's just how it is, so I've agreed to hold the fort until Dr. Director can return."

"As long as you are careful," Kim's father said, "from what you just told us about that Agent Du's parents, they're miles of bad road."

* * *

"I don't care how she got involved! Find _any_ dirt on that girl, and make sure to find something we can crack her with."

The lawyers looked at each other and shrugged; the crazier the request, the higher the pay. Morals were for idealists.

Mrs. Du put her hand on her husband's shoulder. "Maybe we should have a word with Will as well? Perhaps he can explain a bit better what is going on."

"I _know_ what is going on. He has been influenced by that so-caller 'leader' of Global Justice who doesn't know how to handle any threat and is always in a dispute with her brother. But still… have a talk with him, show him that we know that a family should unite to prevail."

"What about Z?" One of the lawyers asked a bit too eagerly. "Do you want us to bring him down as well?"

Mr. Du shook his head. "Forget about that old man. He's truly out of reach. But he can't extend his reach nearly as far as he seems to think. You just make sure to take Kim Possible down; he'll be forced to watch helplessly from the sidelines. His petty games are over."

* * *

**A/N:** And that's the first chapter down. I hope you liked it.


	2. Meetings at Global Justice

Thanks everyone for reviewing, I hope you enjoy this chapter as well.

**Disclaimer: **Kim Possible and related are the property of Disney which, contrary to common belief, I do not own.

Thanks to _Slipgate _for beta-reading this chapter and coming up with great suggestions and ideas.

* * *

**Chapter 2: Meetings at Global Justice**

"So, how does it feel? Being the new leader of Global Justice, I mean."  
Kim gave Dr. Director a weak smile. "Sitting here in front of you? Awful. I really wish there was another way this could have happened."

Betty chuckled. "After I've gotten some time to think about it, I guess I'm okay with how things turned out. And I have to admit that this sort of victory is priceless."

"Not to mention my surprise," Kim muttered, shooting a glance at Will, who sat a little away and grinned in her direction.

"Are you holding up to the task?" Dr. Director then asked, turning more serious.

Kim shrugged. "I've only had two days to get acquainted so far, but with Ron's help and the training I received I should be okay. At least I got that pile of paperwork on your desk worked away somewhat. Now I can properly see over the desk again."

This time, both Betty and Will stared at the redhead in surprise. "That was almost a month's worth of backlog! How did you get that done in a day?"

Kim grinned. "I've got some experience from school committees, and I know how to delegate… but I have to say, that works much better when you're in a position of power." She didn't mention that she had stayed up a long time the previous night in order to sort through the paperwork. Her orderly personality was unable to get some proper sleep knowing that there was a mess waiting.

"By offering any unwilling agent the option of an additional training session," Ron explained when he noticed Dr. Director's confused expression.

"Hey, it worked." Kim's self-satisfied grin spoke volumes; Will hadn't been the only stuck-up agent in the organization, though he had been the most outspoken before his change.

"Well, don't let it get to your head," Betty said, smiling as well. "You can be sure of repercussions after Z's action."

"I'll remember that advice," Kim replied. "But don't worry, we'll make sure GJ keeps running like a well-oiled machine."

* * *

After Kim and Ron had left, Will turned to Dr. Director. "After the mess that we left GJ in, I'd be impressed if even they get the organization running again."

Betty was surprised at the complete lack of mockery in the agent's voice. "You're right. I really hope we can salvage GJ from the mess we got it in."

A small smile formed on Will's lips. "Well, how does it feel to have nothing on your hands for the first time in… how many years again?"

Dr. Director chuckled. "Don't get me started. But yeah, I think I have to get used to this… at least I can go outside as long as you accompany me."

It had been decided that Will Du would stay away from GJ as well for a while, because it was a certainty that his parents hadn't played their last card. And to be fair, he didn't really mind being away from the organization during the time that Kim would be his superior.

It wasn't like he still resented her, but there were things that were just plain unlikable.

* * *

"What's the matter Dr. D? Suddenly getting cold feet?" Shego asked with a smirk as she and Drakken were about to land at the GJ headquarters to get their pardon officialized.

Drakken looked at the building. "I'm just not comfortable entering that building. Although this will be the first time without me in handcuffs."

"See, silver lining…" Shego paused when she noticed Kim's car entering the parking lot. "I wonder what Kimmie is doing here."

Kim and Ron stepped out of the Sloth and walked to the entrance where they met up with Drakken and Shego.

A slightly uncomfortable silence followed.

"So…" Kim finally started. "I assume you're here for your pardon?"

"Nah, we're here to check if the security is still up to date," Shego deadpanned, earning here more uncomfortable looks. "Yes… we're here for the pardon. Since you seem to be a regular here, would you mind showing us to the Director's office?"

"We only ever visited the cell blocks here," Drakken added.

Shego grinned when she noticed Kim's expression; the redhead seemed to be more tense than usual and the former villainess couldn't help pushing her buttons some more. "Of course, unless you're too busy. Then we'll find our own way."

Kim seemed to want to say something, but then she thought better of it. Suddenly she changed to all smiles. "No, we'll show you the way."

Shego felt a bit suspicious about the sudden change of mood, but followed the teens anyway.

"So, how have you been after the invasion?" Ron asked Drakken, trying to break the silence during the walk through the headquarters.

Drakken shrugged. "Laying low, taking stock of what possessions we have left, disbanding the henchmens' contracts."

"So, you've really given up on the whole villainy thing?" Kim then asked. "Now it's just the two of you?"

"Yeah." Shego nodded before Kim's question fully registered. "What? How did you…"

Kim smirked. "I didn't, until your reaction just then. But after the honoration I've had my suspicions."

Shego huffed. "Well, at least ours was surprising. The two of you had it coming so long that it's actually a surprise it took you until after Dr. D's Diablo scheme to realize what you had."

"Well, that's a sort of surprise," Ron offered. "Wait, are you using your Child Development degree to analyze us?"

"You don't need to be analyzed," Shego retorted with a smirk, "you two are so obvious that you could be used as textbook cases."

"And yet we always won," Kim replied with a grin.

Shego huffed. "I never said you were a bad fighter. The two of you are just oblivious about things happening right in front of you… Tell me Princess, after having almost had a year to think about it. Have you never had a moment of 'Oh gosh, I was dating other guys in front of my guy'?"

The green skinned ex-villainess smirked as she watched the silent exchange of glances between the teens, then she turned to Ron. "And I bet you had this big angsty moment where you wondered if you could really keep someone like her."

Kim and Ron were starting to look really uncomfortable now, making Shego decide that enough was enough; she still needed to make sure that Dr. Director signed her and Drakken's pardon after all. "That's how you analyze someone, and that's why Kimmie might have won some of the fights, but lost every verbal match."

"We talked this out a long time ago," Kim snapped defensively before she realized Shego just won another mental match. She continued in a calmer voice. "Besides, I won most of our physical fights. Technically, we won them all since Drakken's plans never worked out in the end."

"Hey!" Drakken muttered. "No fair dragging me into this."

Kim smiled apologetically at the blue man. "Also, we do have some surprises… Anyway, here you are."

Shego looked at the empty office. "Seems like Cyclops isn't around yet." She smiled deviously at Kim. "Are you going to leave us all alone here, now that we are 'reformed'?"

Kim's grin met Shego's all the way. "Not at all." The redhead stepped into the office and took a seat behind the desk. "Let's get that pardon signed, shall we?"

* * *

"Wait…" Shego stared at the younger girl. "You are in charge of Global Justice?"

Kim smirked. "They gave you a pardon, don't you think they would at least give me a promotion?"

"No-no-no." Shego eyed the redhead suspiciously. "You would never accept that. I've heard you complain about them… something happened."

Kim frowned. "When did you hear me complain about GJ?"

"Maybe when we were discussing stuff during a fight with Drakken's henchmen?" Ron suggested helpfully.

"Pu-lease," Drakken said. "Isn't it obvious? Someone tried to overthrow Dr. Director, and she put Kim in charge while she figured things out because no one would try to overthrow a hero who just saved the planet."

Three pairs of eyes stared at the blue ex-villain. "What? I hear stuff when I'm locked up here."

Shego frowned. "So he's right?"

"Close enough," Kim said, "GJ has been going through a rough time lately, and they put me in charge."

"Once in that seat, it's hard to get out," Shego said with a grin. "Believe me. Hego is a prime example, and it would have gotten me too if I hadn't gotten out of there in time."

"What exactly did happen to make you quit?" Ron asked, earning him a warning glare from his girlfriend. "What? She's one of the good guys now, right?"

Shego smirked. "Keep making yourself believe that. So, princess, you _are_ qualified to sign those pardons, right?"

Kim had already decided to stop trying to push the former villains any more and just go along with things now. "Sure, no big. The forms were already prepared anyway."

* * *

"Can you imagine," Shego squealed in a pretty good fan-girl voice. "We're getting an autograph from _the_ Kim Possible… after all these years."

Kim chuckled as she signed the forms, effectively agreeing that Global Justice too would drop all charges if Drakken and Shego refrained from criminal activity from now on. "Even better, you'll be getting the real deal."

Drakken frowned, confused. "Huh?"

"Pretty much from the start of the missions, my dad suggested we come up with a 'fans' autograph and have it officially recognized." Ron explained. "That way, no one could claim we signed any contract when we thought we were just signing another fan booklet."

"I remember that issue," Shego said, "Nearly caused Hego to lose the Go Tower." Then she smirked at Ron. "You have fans too?"

Kim was about to jump to Ron's defense, but her boyfriend was well up to that task himself. "Most of it for the past year or so. It takes time to appreciate the Ron-man."

"I know how that feels," Drakken lamented. "I had to turn all evil and world-dominating, and even then it took me saving the world before they recognized me."

"So…" Kim interrupted, fearing that the topic might get way out of hand, "what are you two going to do now?"

Drakken and Shego looked at each other and shrugged. "Haven't figured that one out yet. We'll probably take some time away."

"We can sell the surplus lairs that survived and most of the equipment," Drakken suggested. "I think we could live off that alone for a while."

Kim for one knew that Shego would never agree to a laid-back life. "GJ is always looking for good scientists and field agents."

Shego smirked. "Yeah, not going to happen princess. Doc one-eye may have snared you, but I ain't getting snared back into that world."

Kim grinned. "It was worth a shot."

"We'll let ourselves out," Shego said as she stood up, "but if you ever get the feeling those training dummies they call agents here aren't a challenge, give me a call."

"You'll be on my speed dial," Kim replied with a grin.

After they had seen Drakken and Shego off, Ron turned to Kim. "Well that was weird."

Kim smiled. "Yeah, but in a good way. If we can keep those two away from the villain side, we'll get it a lot easier mission-wise."

Ron chuckled. "At least they have each other."

"I know, who'd have thought that," Kim said, "after all the abuse she's been giving him."

"You know what they say, even negative attention is attention."

Kim eyed her boyfriend. "Are you trying to tell me something?"

Ron quickly took a step back. "No! No, just making a joke."

Kim's smile returned. "Better keep it that way." She leaned forward and gave her boyfriend a kiss. "Because I'm all about the positive attention."

* * *

Over the next couple of days, things eased down for Team Possible. The Possible clan was settling in to the Stoppable house, and construction had already begun on their own home.

Kim also started to get the hang of managing Global Justice while Will's parents remained silent.

However, after two more talks with Dr. Director and one with Zachary, Kim started to get the feeling the two were conspiring to reel her into the agency by keeping her at the GJ desk long enough to get her used to working at Global Justice. However, this was something she couldn't do much about except to clearly explain that she had no intention of keeping Dr. Director's position, although she got the feeling her words fell on deaf ears, or at least ears that weren't inclined to listen.

Kim had offered Ron a position at Global Justice as well, but he had declined.

"KP, I know the pay is better, but I would rather stick to my Smarty Mart job. You know our track record when it comes to sharing a job."

"That was only one time," Kim protested. "And I really didn't like working at Bueno Nacho."

Ron merely raised an eyebrow.

"Okay fine," Kim said with a sigh. "But I do like what I do now… not that I want to stay at GJ, but… you know…" she started looking at her boyfriend with eyes that seemed to say, "Please understand what I say, because it began to stop making sense to me too."

Ron smiled. "Surprisingly, I think I do understand what you mean. But I still don't think it's a good idea if you hire me at GJ."

"But it would be fun," Kim tried.

"We'd be seeing each other all day," Ron countered, "which kind of takes the special out of 'us' time, don't you think? Besides, we'd be in an uneven working relationship, you being the director and all. What would you have me do?"

Kim thought frantically for a position that didn't say 'assistant.' "We'll think of something…"

Ron shook his head. "Sorry KP." He thought for a moment before adding, "Look, the job at Smarty Mart may not be that great, but I worked hard to obtain it. I don't want you to get me any fancy job because you're my girlfriend."

Kim blinked in surprise. "What happened to Ron the easygoing slacker?"

Ron grinned. "It's your bad influence… now you've lost him for good."

Kim gave a sad smile, but then she began to laugh. "Okay, you're right. You should stay at Smarty Mart then… But I'm willing to bet a Saturday afternoon's worth of chores that Lazy Ron is still around."

"You're on. Next Saturday I'll show you that Lazy Ron…" Ron frowned. "Wait, that means I'm still doing the chores…"

Kim smirked. "You go and figure that one out, Potential Boy."

* * *

"Sir, I have good news. Glo… the enemy has been rocked heavily from a coup attempt, and Dr. Director has been lifted from her position."

Gemini smirked while he petted his Chihuahua Pepe. The small animal was still growling at the current agent Beta who had nearly misspoken. "That is great news. We will attack immediately."

"Uhm…" Agent Beta rubbed his neck. "Unfortunately, it looks as if Kim Possible has taken the lead of… the enemy."

"What? And you call that good news?"

"The first part was, right?" the agent offered, now looking very worried.

Gemini seemed to calm down. "You're right. Sit down, we need to figure out a proper plan of attack."

Too relieved that Gemini appeared to take the news rather well, Agent Beta never took notice that the chair he sat down in had suddenly appeared out of the floor.

As the chair shot away on a small rail that had previously been hidden, accompanied by a bone-chilling scream from the former Agent Beta, Gemini turned to Agent Gamma. "You know the drill. After you change the letter on your uniform you can work out a way to attack GJ." The abbreviation only resulted in a low growl from Pepe. "I expect a plan by tomorrow afternoon."

"Yes sir, right away." The new Agent Beta was too smart to object to that short timeframe. Then he hurried off to comply, partly content in finally reaching the highest position in WWEE, and partly fearing his life now that he was the most obvious target for Gemini's bizarre mood swings.

* * *

"KP! I finally received answers from some of the universities I applied to," Ron said enthusiastically as he held up a respectable stack of letters.

Kim smiled. "That's great Ron! Which universities answered?"

Ron quickly opened the first letter. "This one is from the Upperton University… _Dear Mr. Stoppable, we thank you for applying to our institute, however…_ aww."

"What is it?" Kim asked.

"They said 'however,'" Ron sulked, "you know they don't want you then."

Kim rolled her eyes. "Just read the letter fully."

Ron sighed. "Fine… _however, we must stress that the culinary course you applied for is a part-time course which is mainly taken for career re-entry. Given your current age and education, we think there may have been an error in communication. Attached to this letter is an informational folder with all available education tracks. We do hope you will find a suitable and satisfying education at the Upperton University. Sincerely…_"

Kim frowned. "What exactly did you apply for?"

Ron chuckled, embarrassed, "Upperton University was one of the first I applied for, before I asked Mr. Barkin for help… I may have been a bit too eager."

Kim grinned. "Sure you were. But you see that 'however' doesn't say anything. Now, let's see what the other letters have to say."

* * *

Eventually, it turned out that nine universities were happy to have Ron, and two even offered a semi-scholarship if Ron would join the football team and proved good enough for the varsity team.

As Kim and Ron were sorting Ron's letters, Jim walked in. "Kim, the mailman came back for you."

Kim frowned. "Okay… is there some problem because we can't receive letters at home?"

Jim grinned. "I think you'd better go outside and see for yourself."

As Kim and Ron stepped outside, they saw Tim talking to the mailman, who had parked his van on the driveway of the Stoppable residence.

"Kim Possible?" The mailman asked, redundantly because he often brought mail to the Possibles and occasionally had a small conversation with them. "You have some mail."

Kim walked to the mailman, expecting a similar stack of papers as the one Ron had received; it was probably too much for the small mailbox. But the mailman was empty-handed. "Okay, where is the mail?"

The mailman chuckled slightly. "Well… let's say we agreed at the post office that you can have the van for the weekend."

"What?" Kim stared at the van. "You mean…"

"It seems some of the universities were afraid that your acceptance letters got destroyed with the house," Mr. Dr. Possible, who had walked out as well, said.

"Well, most were…" Kim agreed, walking almost cautiously to the van. "But there weren't this many." The van was positively stacked with letters, and they were all addressed to Kim.

"I'll pick up the van Monday," the mailman said before leaving.

* * *

Later that day, at the dinner table, Mrs. Dr. Possible noticed that her daughter was in a bad mood. "What's the matter honey? You got all your college acceptance letters back, right?"

"Those, and more," Kim said. "Pretty much every university in the country would love to have me as their student. Lots of them offered full scholarships as well."

"Then what's the problem?" Ron asked.

Kim sighed. "They're treating me like an asset. They only want me so they can say that the Kim Possible has studied at their university."

"Aren't you a bit too suspicious now Kimmie?' Kim's father asked.

"I've read the fine print in most of the letters I've read so far," Kim explained. "They expect me to be available for public happenings and press conferences, and two even wanted me to feature their logo on my mission outfit."

Mrs. Dr. Possible frowned. "Okay, I see your point. But are all the universities like that?"

"A lot of them are." Kim replied. "I got a bit discouraged after a while. At the moment Upperton is the only one who has been pretty sincere, maybe because I already know them a bit from my AP classes."

"And how about your dream of studying abroad," Mrs. Stoppable asked.

"The European universities are more fair," Kim pondered, "but I have been setting my hopes on studying close to Ron as well."

Ron smiled. "That's cool KP, but I would never want you to hold back because of me."

"I wouldn't be holding back," Kim replied immediately, almost defensive. "A lot of universities that are willing to have you are just as good as the European universities."

"Not talking about education here," Ron said, "but now you have the chance to study abroad. I don't want you to dish that just so we can stay close together. If even aliens can't keep us apart, I don't think a mere ocean can."

Kim chuckled. "Well, if you put it that way… but remember how bad the summer of Wannaweep was?"

Kim and Ron both cringed at the memory; even though Ron had had it worse with the terrible camp and the cruel campmates, Kim hadn't fared much better during the longest time the two had been separated since they met at pre-school.

Then Ron suddenly remembered something. "If I apply to the Upperton University, I may be able to get into their international program with one of their sister universities in Europe! They mentioned something like that in the folder. They have sister universities in England, France, and Italy. I can take one or two years study abroad after first two years at Upperton Univerity."

Kim's mood suddenly turned a lot better. "Two years, well, that's still really long. But if we can get that done…"

"And don't forget you still have the holidays," Kim's mother said. "I think the two of you will manage just fine."

* * *

"How did you fare during your first week as director of Global Justice?" Zachary asked. He had visited Kim several times over the past week and kept her informed about possible threats to her position, the most significant of which were Will's parents.

"Not bad," Kim said, "I've had the heads of the departments come by for a status update, and I had Wade cross-reference that with what he found after searching the system… he really enjoys the full access I granted him, claiming that he still hardly found anything he didn't know yet."

Z frowned. "Is it wise to give a young teen like him access to all of Global Justice's files?"

"Is it wise to have a teenager in charge of the entire agency?" Kim retorted. "Besides, Wade is one of the few people I fully trust. And I believe him when he says hardly anything is new to him."

Zachary sighed and let it pass, taking a mental note to double-check the Wade-proofness of his own systems.

"Anyway, I'm starting to figure out what is and has been going on at GJ," Kim continued. "And it is surprising how little bad intention there was. It is just that every department runs for itself and reports only to Dr. Director. All Will's parents had to do was fill in some false data here and there and no-one bothered to cross-check except for the ones who coordinated to bring GJ down. Wade is working on washing those out."

"Remarkable," Zachary admitted. "And that in just one week. Are you sure you don't want to continue doing this?"

"I'll fall in the same trap as Dr. Director did," Kim said, "GJ has just grown stagnant. All this shaking up lately might actually be the thing the organization needed… not that I'm saying it was a good thing what Will's parents did, but the end result could be a good thing for GJ."

Z chuckled. "That's one way to look at it. Nevertheless, the Dus are still thinking of ways to get you denounced from your position. Is there anything they could use against you that we can act on in advance?"

* * *

"What have you found?" Mr. Du asked impatiently. "You've been working on this case for over a week now. It's not like she's not a public figure."

The Dus' lawyers, unlike most underlings, were not the kind of people who bowed down for anyone; they were far too sleek for that. "She's a surprisingly good girl. We're doing the best we can for the money you pay us."

Mr. Du growled something that he would never utter in front of the public. "I'm beginning to doubt you are."

The lawyer merely grinned. "We have a contract. We're doing exactly as much as the contract entails us to do. We are always negotiable though."

There was no winning against this bunch and Mr. Du knew it. He was actually glad that most lawyers were after money instead of power; they would devastate the world within a week.

* * *

"Will is still not responding," Mrs. Du said as she arrived shortly after the lawyers had left. "Our own son is not responding to our plea to help us."

Mr. Du raised an eyebrow.

"It does sound good, right?" his wife added with a slight smile. "That should do the trick for the public eye after we bring that girl down."

"About that… she might actually be the, and I'm paraphrasing someone who Will told me about when he knew what made sense, goody-two-shoes girl she's often depicted to be."

Mrs. Du shrugged. "Everybody has a dark side. Did the lawyers plow through all the 'missions' she did? I'm willing to bet that there were some where whatever she did could be interpreted as unlawful."

"The are a few instances," Mr. Du replied, "and they're working on making a case. But so far, unless we go by the exact letter of the law, we've got nothing on her."

The politicians sighed, each in their own thoughts; going by the letter of the law might give them some headway, but it was certain that it would be reflected back to them, leaving them empty-handed and probably worse off.

A knock on the door brought them out of their contemplations.

The lawyer who had walked off only minutes ago stepped back in. "We may have something. A colleague of ours can bring us in contact with someone who might be willing to bring down Kim Possible and who even may have something we can make a case from."

* * *

"Did you make any headway with this puzzle?" Kim asked as she looked at her computer screen, which was mostly occupied with Wade's face.

"It's slow going," Wade admitted, "But I'm getting there. I keep finding new tunnels though. You don't want to know how long they must have been digging."

Being the impromptu leader of Global Justice, Kim was finally able to do something about the complex and sometimes idiotic tunnel system that connected GJ with the outside world. It was not that the idea was a particularly bad one, but a rollercoaster ride of nearly a mile to cover a distance that was in fact not much more than two hundred yards was somewhat redundant.

"From the files it seems that GJ confiscated some tunnel digging robots from a villain, long before we entered the scene, and they began using them to make their tunnel system."

"I get that," Kim said, "but it looks as if they just let the robots dig tunnels without much of a system behind it."

"And sometimes the tunnels are there, but the actual tubes take a detour," Wade added, "Whoever designed this must have been crazier than Drakken."

Kim chuckled. "Don't let him hear that. It has been a lot easier for us now Drakken and Shego are not our main villains anymore."

Wade smirked. "You're not getting bored yet, are you?"

"I've got enough on my plate right now, thank you very much," Kim replied with a smile. "But then again, I am starting to miss the missions a bit already."

Wade laughed. "The villains will come out of hiding. You can bet on that."

"Yeah," Kim agreed, "and I'd like to be prepared when they do. If we can get the tunnel system up to spec, that will be a nice surprise, don't you think?"

"I think it will," Wade said, "The villain who previously owned the robots called himself 'The Mole' and he had a whole plan ready to make a tunnel system through the core of the planet."

This immediately rang all kinds of alarm bells for Kim. "You're not planning on following on that, are you?"

Wade chuckled. "No, even with those great robots it would take years. But the system should enable quick passage through the whole of the US, and maybe even trans-Atlantic eventually."

"The US is enough for me at the moment," Kim replied, "although a quick trip to Europe would be nice when I start college there." She then turned more serious. "I still have to prepare for that scholarship interview with Aberystwyth University."

This made Wade look up. "They won't let you in on being Kim Possible alone? I'm amazed."

Kim smirked. "I was a bit surprised too, but they're really good. And I'm glad they start off with treating me just like anybody else."

"When's the meeting?" Wade asked.

"July 7th," Kim replied from memory. "But I still need to do a lot of research into the university."

"That's more than a month away," Wade pointed out, "that's way ahead, even for you."

Kim glared at the young genius. "Ha ha. I just want to make a good impression. This is about my future, you know."

Wade grinned. "I wouldn't worry about that too much. And even if you don't get in, there are universities trampling over each other to get you instated."

Kim sighed. "That's not really what I want. I want a real education, not to become some sort of mascot or trophy."

Wade shrugged. "Suit yourself." He then grinned at the redhead. "At least I got it easy. I went through all college courses online… never set foot on a campus."

"I'm not sure that's such a great example," Kim said. "But it worked great for you," she quickly added.

Wade frowned. "I'll let that one pass. I'll let you know when I have more on the tunnel schematics."

Kim chuckled after Wade's face had disappeared from the screen. "Let's hope we get that one done before the major villains start showing up again."

* * *

"Who are you? Don't you know you are trespassing on PRIVATE PROPERTY!"

"We know it's not. According to German law, any building that is noted as a business does not fall under private property. Furthermore, we are not trespassing; we made an appointment and your secretary let us in."

"Ah, I remember… Vhat do you want?"

"We have a proposition for you regarding an item that was stolen from you several years ago…"

* * *

**A/N:** I hope you enjoyed this chapter. More to come soon. Reviews are always welcome.


	3. Double honors

Thanks everyone for reviewing, I hope you enjoy this chapter as well.

**Disclaimer: **Kim Possible and related are the property of Disney which, contrary to common belief, I do not own.

Thanks to _Slipgate _for beta-reading this chapter and helping me prevent mistakes and giving me some great suggestions.

* * *

**Chapter 3: Double Honors**

Kim smiled contently as she and Ron sat on a bench in the park, holding hands. "Dinner, a relaxing walk… you sure know how to treat a lady."

Ron chuckled. "Those are the perks of knowing you long enough to know what you like."

With Global Justice in a state that somewhat resembled order again, and with the Smarty Mart extra hours finally subsiding – it was amazing how many people went there to buy things to replace what was destroyed in the alien invasion, and even more amazing that Smarty Mart actually had all that stuff – Kim and Ron had finally found some time for just the two of them, and they had decided to make the most out of it.

"Any idea how tomorrow will go?" Ron asked after they sat in silence for a while. The next day the 'official' honoration of Team Possible and Drakken and Shego would take place.

Kim gently squeezed his hand. "Don't worry about it. I won't tell anyone about your powers if you don't want to share… but I will tell the world that you took at least an equal part in rescuing me and saving the world."

"I'm not so worried about that," Ron said, "I trust you. It's just that I don't like standing in front of loads of people and cameras. What if my pants drop?"

Kim chuckled. "That already happen at a UN conference, and it didn't bother you then."

"Yeah, but that was an accidental drop-in," Ron replied, "this time they will want to put us in the spotlight, and ask all kinds of questions."

Kim shrugged. "Doy, being a hero means you fight bad guys, rescue people in less than satisfactory conditions… you think there wouldn't be a downside to that?"

Ron laughed. "Have you been getting sarcasm lessons from Shego?"

Kim grinned. "I'm keeping it a surprise for her for the next time we have a match… one I hope will be a friendly one though."

"I really think they're going to try to stick on the good side," Ron said, "Drakken finally got his recognition, and I don't think Shego cares about actual villainy as long as she can do what she wants."

Kim frowned. "Did you just hear yourself? Anyway, I have the feeling that Drakken's refusal to return to the villain side keeps the other villains at bay as well. When he does return to villainy, or when they figure out he's going straight voluntarily they might start up their own schemes again."

"With GJ at your disposal, what can go wrong?" Ron asked.

"Too many things to count," Kim replied with a small chuckle.

"We can still just go Team Possible on them," Ron suggested, "that never failed."

"I guess you're right. Maybe I am looking into this too much." Kim's smile easily returned. "Besides, tonight is about us having a good time." With that, she leaned toward him.

* * *

"Good morning dad," Kim said cheerfully as she walked into the Stoppable kitchen the next morning. "What's up?"

Her father was hunched over his laptop, clearly trying to figure out a problem. "I'm not entirely sure Kimmie. I managed to get all the files back from the backups on the basement computer. But I can't seem to access the program that monitors the Hephaestus metal ingrained in the basement walls."

Kim frowned. "Is that a bad thing?"

"Not necessarily… the computer can work very well on its own." Mr. Dr. Possible reassured his daughter. "Don't worry about it developing a brain bent on destruction. We made sure to program those out."

"I wasn't worried until you mentioned that," Kim replied, only half joking. "The basement walls can't do anything besides repairing themselves, right?"

"Well, that is the problem. I'm not sure if the blueprints of the basement are programmed correctly. I originally built it to fit the blueprints of the house, but now I can't access the files to see whether the basement has really repaired itself correctly."

Kim shrugged, relieved that the problem seemed mundane. "If that's all, you can just go there and apply some more Hephaestus metal after the house is rebuilt, right?"

"I think so…" Mr. Dr. Possible muttered, then bent over his laptop again, trying to hack into his own files once more.

Kim sighed and decided to let it go. Today was going to be busy enough as it was.

When Kim was almost finished setting the table, Ron came stumbling down the stairs with a mighty jawn.

"Morning Ron," Kim said. "Did you sleep well?"

"Would have loved to sleep in a bit," Ron admitted with a smile as he passed Kim and gave her a soft kiss on her cheek. "Hana didn't wake you tonight, did she?"

Kim grinned. "No, she slept like a baby, she didn't even wake up when I went to bed."

Ron's father was next to walk into the kitchen, and he made a beeline for the coffee can after quickly mumbling everyone a good morning. Ron's mother followed shortly after, carrying Hanna. After putting the girl in a baby chair she too quickly went over to the coffee can.

Kim chuckled; it was just like her parents if they hadn't beaten her to the breakfast table. "_Wonder how long it will be before Ron and I become such coffee addicts._"

"Dad, are you going to eat breakfast as well?" Kim asked when everyone sat down; only Mrs. Dr. Possible was missing, but she had a night shift and wouldn't arrive until later in the morning. "Those computer files can wait, it's not like the basement will get up and walk off if you leave it for a moment, right?"

* * *

"I'm telling you, weird stuff is going on there," Joe, one of the construction workers assigned to rebuilding the Possible residence, said to Ted, another worker. "I swear that one of the steel support beams just moved."

Ted shrugged. "You're just seeing things. No doubt the others scared you a bit too much with their tales about the people who live here. Do you really think that people would be able to come up with all kinds of crazy inventions like that? And keep them inside their own home?"

"I guess you're right," Joe conceded. "But I'll still be glad when this job is done. Kim Possible may have done the boss a huge favor, but I prefer working on houses with a lower profile."

* * *

After having had breakfast, Kim and Ron were unsure of what to do. The honoration wouldn't be until late afternoon and with the help of the Sloth they could arrive there in plenty of time even if they departed only an hour or so before the event started.

But then a black car stopped in front of the Stoppable home and two men in black suits stepped out.

"Miss Possible, Mr. Stoppable? We are Agents Jones and Brown," one of them said after Ron opened to door to see what was going on. "We're here to pick you up for the honoration event."

"Isn't that not until later today?" Kim asked. "And I thought we would have to use our own transportation."

The agents' facial expression showed nothing, and the sunglasses didn't help much either. "You need to be debriefed on the program. We don't want anything to go wrong."

"That makes sense," Ron said. "So, what happened to Agent Smith and Agent Smith?"

Agent Jones shrugged. "Different department."

"Okay, just give us a moment to get ready," Kim replied. The agents nodded and stepped back in the car.

Kim looked at Ron. "At least they have the same mindset as the agents Smith."

The teens walked back into the house to get properly dressed for the event.

* * *

When they arrived at the airport, Kim and Ron were surprised to see Will Du.

"What are you doing here?" Kim inquired. "Aren't you supposed to keep watch over Dr. Director?"

"I'm not entirely sure," Will admitted. "I was called because Global Justice needed a group leader at the honoration."

"KP isn't good enough for that?" Ron asked.

"I guess it's because we can't command the GJ agents at the same time as being honored," Kim suggested. "I really wish agent Jones and Brown would be a bit more talkative though."

"That's what we have the villains for," Ron quipped.

Will frowned. "About the villains… Have you heard from any since the invasion?"

Kim shrugged. "With the exception of Drakken and Shego, none. I think they're still laying low, just like after Drakken's Diablo sitch."

"Good point," Will said, "but the super villains are not the only criminals that are laying low. It almost seems like the entire criminal community has gone silent."

"Are you still monitoring GJ? " Ron asked. "Is that even allowed?"

Kim rolled her eyes. "Will is still the number one agent, remember." She turned to Will. "And yes, you're right, but it's mainly big-time thieves, like Falsetto Jones, who have gone silent. Organized crime and petty criminals are still active like normal."

"Take this as advice, but when a whole group of criminals goes silent, it's never a good thing," Will deadpanned.

Kim smirked. "Thanks."

"Speaking about Falsetto Jones, did that challenge thing ever work out?' Ron asked Will.

The agent shook his head. "Either it was a false promise, or they will postpone eternally."

"You were really hoping for an invitation back then, weren't you?" Kim asked.

Will shrugged. "At the time, they seemed like they really wanted to prove their worth. And there were other things we wanted to accomplish then."

Kim glared at the agent. "Don't remind me. The fact that I'm willing to help GJ out doesn't mean I forgave you fully for that trick."

Whatever Will wanted to say in reply to that was interrupted when Agent Brown walked in. "The plane is ready."

* * *

"So we won't be picked up?" Drakken paced around excitedly while making the phone call. "Yes, I do realize I asked that many times already. I'll bet you're picking up Kim Possible."

Shego smirked at the blue man's antics from the couch she was sitting on, filing her nails. "Tell him we will charge for travel expenses."

"You know, we can charge you for travel expenses… yes, I do understand we go there on a voluntary basis, but still…" Drakken made a gesture with his hand, indicating that whoever was on the other line was babbling. "Well, excuse me for wanting to arrive there in style. I doubt you even have a proper parking lot for a hover vehicle."

"They park just like any other car," Shego muttered under her breath. Then she had to grin again; maybe that was the problem. Drakken wasn't the best driver to begin with.

"So Kim Possible is also arriving by her own means." Drakken huffed. "Well, I'll have you know that she has the use of a rocket car…"

"And unlimited favors," Shego suggested.

"…And unlimited recourses," Drakken went on. "My hover car doesn't have those speeds… no, I don't have an airport nearby."

"But we can use my jet," Shego said.

"But we can use Shego's jet…" Drakken glared at his former henchwoman. "Shego!" He turned back to his phone call. "Well, it seems we have that figured out. We'll see you later today."

He hung up the phone and retuned his glare to Shego, who smirked back at him.

"I almost had them, stop putting words in my mouth."

"You can ignore them, you know," Shego replied.

Drakken shrugged. "You were doing so well on the first few… how can I trust you if you keep doing things like that?"

Shego chuckled. "Yeah right, like our relation is built on trust. Besides, I can do a lot better than put words in your mouth. If we go in my jet, we still have about four hours to kill."

Before Drakken could react, the green-skinned vixen had already pounced on him.

* * *

"Either I'm really confused about the time, or we're flying in the wrong direction," Kim said as she looked out of one of the airplane's windows.

"It's eleven AM," Ron offered. "What do you mean, we're flying in the wrong direction?"

"We should be flying east," Kim explained, "but we seem to be going too far north. I'm going to ask the pilot about this."

For a moment, Kim feared that this was a trap and she would be unable to get into the cockpit, but the door opened easily and she found Agent Jones, Agent Brown, and the co-pilot looking at her as well. The pilot seemed to be checking his instruments and wasn't paying much attention to the passengers.

"Excuse me," Kim said. "Where exactly are we going?"

"Rochester, New York," Agent Jones provided as if that would explain everything. When he noticed it didn't, he added, "We have a base there where we can prepare without disturbing other preparations."

Kim frowned. "Okay… would you mind handing me the Kimmunicator back, I'd like to level things with Wade for a moment."

"I'm sorry," the co-pilot said, "we can't allow broadcasting equipment on board. You can call your friend after we have landed."

Still doubtful, Kim returned to Ron and Will. "There's something fishy about this."

"Do you think this is a trap?" Ron asked, concerned.

"I'm not sure," Kim admitted, "if so, they're really going out of their way to make us comfortable."

"And then they'd still need to explain my presence," Will offered. "Why would they complicate matters by dragging me into this as well?"

Kim shrugged. "Maybe I'm just seeing things. Just be prepared for anything, okay?"

Ron smiled. "No problemo KP, that's what we're best at."

* * *

"Dr's Possible, Mr. and Mrs. Stoppable? Are you ready to go?"

"Yes, we are," Mrs. Dr. Possible said. The Possible and Stoppable families walked out, all neatly dressed, and stepped into the limousine that was waiting for them to bring them to the airport. "Wow, we're really driving in style."

The attendant nodded. "I take it Miss Possible and Mr. Stoppable are arriving on their own account?"

Mr. Stoppable frowned. "They were already picked up earlier this morning. Something about preparing everything."

The attendant thought for a moment, but then he shrugged. "I think that goes higher up than me then… I do wish they kept me informed at least a bit though." The latter he muttered under his breath.

* * *

Kim was still trying to figure out what to do when her earlobe tickled. "Ron! So not the time right now…"

"Kim," Wade voice suddenly sounded in the redhead's ear.

"Wade?"

"I couldn't reach you on the Kimmunicator," Wade said. "The signal seemed to be jammed."

"Yeah, they put it in a signal-shielding container," Kim muttered, still a bit put off that she had given up her communication device so easily. "Wait… when did you put receivers in my earrings?"

"Not important right now," Wade's voice sounded slightly nervous for a moment, but he quickly recovered. "There's a huge assembly of criminals going to Rochester. It seems like something similar to the villain convention. Maybe you can convince the pilot to divert to there and squeeze in a mission before the honoration. Also, one of the tunnel diggers that was going to connect GJ with the Canadian spy organization is very close to Rochester, so you can also send a complement of GJ agents that way."

"We're already headed for Rochester," Kim replied, then fell silent as the pieces of the puzzle were slowly coming together.

"KP?" Ron asked; he and Will had been confused a bit by Kim's sudden monologue until they figured out she was talking to Wade.

"The challenge…"

"The what now?"

Kim's eyes widened. "We're being taken toward another 'honoration'!" she whispered. "Those guys in there aren't government agents, they're with The Guardians. That's why they brought Will along too."

Will frowned. "So we're being kidnapped in order to receive a reward?"

"Pretty much," Kim said in agreement. She then smirked. "Seems like GJ's original plan could still work."

"Hah, they thought they could outsmart us," Ron said, "but look who's the better now."

But Will Du wasn't so cheerful. "It just occurred to me, even if we send in a bunch of agents, we have nothing to go with to arrest those criminals. They'll be out before you know it."

"Good point," Kim said, "Wade, anything?"

"I have an idea," Wade smugly replied. "But you guys will have to act surprised and play along."

* * *

After the plane had landed and the door opened, Kim was not surprised to face both leaders of the Guardians. "Fancy meeting you here."

The dark-haired man smirked. "Glad you could make it."

"Yeah, well, we do have another little something we need to go to, if you don't mind," Kim replied.

"Don't worry, you'll be back in plenty of time," the man said, "If you don't resist, that is. Otherwise we might need to keep you here for a longer time."

Kim huffed. "As if. Just let's get this over with, okay?"

The leaders of the Guardians seemed a little put off by the teens' easy acceptance, but they shrugged and gestured for the trio to follow them.

"So, could you finally tell us your names now?" Ron asked as they walked away from the plane.

"Yeah, great conversation," he muttered when his question was completely ignored.

"What purpose does this happening have anyway?" Kim asked. "I mean, I get why thieves want to win a prize and gain some credit. But why build a whole event around it?"

The female leader of the Guardians glanced over her shoulder before addressing the redhead. "It's fairly simple. We're the best and we like to keep it that way."

"Everyone who loses is not a good as we are," her partner added, "and those who win will be exposed, thus severely hurting their secrecy as thieves."

"That actually makes sense," Will Du muttered, "I have always been wondering what the purpose of this was."

The dark-haired man smirked. "And yet you tried to take advantage of it. Did you really think you would get an open invitation?"

"Loads of criminals heading this way are not that hard to notice," Kim retorted.

"No doubt, but pinning it down to Rochester is not enough to locate our base. And we'll make sure to shield you from any tracker long before you enter the actual location."

"Don't worry about that," Kim heard a soft voice in her ear. "They can only shield airwaves. The tunnel digger is already under your location and I can still track you using subsonic waves."

Kim had to put effort not to smile smugly at the backs of their hosts; it would do her no good if they happened to look back and wonder if she still had a trick up her sleeve.

* * *

It had been a while since Kim had to face so many criminals at the same time. A lot of them recognized her and watched her with apprehension as she and Ron walked up to the podium.

"Where criminals fail, heroes prevail, or so it seems." Somehow the leader of the Guardians managed to insult everyone present with his words, and his grin showed that was exactly what he had intended. "Kim Possible and her partner Ron Stoppable have proven to be the best amongst thieves and were the only ones capable of robbing us."

Kim didn't like to be put in the spotlight like that, but she was happy that Ron had been properly addressed.

The dark-haired man smirked. "Of course, this would never have happened without the help of Global Justice." He gestured at Will Du. "Their plan was to steal from us, and then capture most of you during this meeting."

Some of the criminals shifted uncomfortably upon hearing that news, but most of them laughed, as it was clear that GJ had failed. None of them noticed the thin, smoke-like particles that permeated through the ventilation system and settled on everyone inside.

* * *

After the ceremony, Kim, Ron and Will were brought back to the airport where a nondescript airplane was waiting to bring them to the UN headquarters.

"Have fun," the leader of the Guardians said, "and hopefully we meet again."

Kim smirked. "Count on it."

When they were airborne, the redhead contacted Wade. "Did it work?"

"Yeah," Wade replied smugly. "The tracking powder got them all. And this improved version will stick for a long time. If they are still active GJ will get really busy for the next few weeks."

"What about us?" Ron asked. "We got hit too."

"I'll neutralize those in a moment," Wade promised. "Oh, and don't worry about ethical issues; I've set one of my computers to work to track them and only alert me when some of them spend an unusual long time near a bank or other valuable risk."

Kim smiled. "You rock Wade."

* * *

"Sure took you long enough," Shego remarked when Kim and Ron finally arrived at the UN. Will had already diverted and joined the GJ complement that was present during the ceremony.

"We had a little delay," Kim said, "anything exciting happen?"

Shego glanced at Drakken and a smile formed on her lips.

Ron was the first to catch the meaning of that. "Eww. You're not supposed to mention things like that."

The green-skinned woman shrugged. "Is it my fault you catch some innuendo for once?"

Kim shook her head. "Right… let's just get ready for the ceremony, okay?"

Before they had to go to the stage, Kim and Ron just had time to meet up with their parents.

"Where have you been?" Kim's mother asked. "You left before us."

Kim shrugged. "We had to do a little mission on the side. No big."

More conversation had to wait, as an attendant politely asked the teens to follow him.

"Ok, when your name is called, you step forward and receive the medal." Kim, Ron, Drakken and Shego were once more instructed on the procedure of the honoration. "And after that, the press would like to ask you some questions."

"But I already received a medal," Drakken pointed out, holding up the medal that currently hung around his neck.

"And I don't do press conferences," Shego added.

Kim rolled her eyes, but the attendant quickly soothed the situation. "Mr. Lipsky, the medal you received previously was for your participation in warding off the aliens, the medal you are receiving today is for saving the world."

"I bet Kimmie has a closet full of those," Shego remarked with a grin.

"Miss Go, most of the questions will probably be aimed at Team Possible," the attendant continued. "Furthermore, we will intercept any question that is not directly related to your actions during the alien invasion and that you are uncomfortable answering."

"You've done press conferences before, right?" Ron asked. "Back in the day."

"Yeah, and I didn't like them one bit," Shego replied. "At least then Mr. Super Strong Glory Hog was taking up most of the picture."

Kim smirked. "Don't worry Shego, I won't try to steal away your spotlight."

Anything that Shego wanted to say in response was cut off when the attendant asked them to get to the stage.

* * *

The award ceremony went off without a problem; it was when the press started asking questions that the four heroes of the Lowardian invasion, as they were being called now, got a more difficult task.

"We've seen the alien walkers in action and military equipment was useless against them. How were you able to defeat their whole army?"

"With the power of nature," Drakken boasted, and right at that moment he lost his slowly increasing control over his flower power and bright yellow petals sprung from his neck.

As Drakken growled and started pulling the leaves from his body, Shego took over. "Once they were herded to one location it was easy for Dr. D to get them all."

"But what about the aliens?" another reporter asked. "Did they die? Are they kept in a military facility?"

"And what happened to their ship?" someone else joined in. "We have many eyewitnesses who saw it falling to Earth. Where are the remains?"

This time, the attendant chimed in. "Both aliens died. We think they crashed into their spaceship when they retreated."

Kim shot a glance at Ron, but he shrugged and nodded; this story was good enough, and conspiracy theorists wouldn't believe it anyway.

"What was your role in this Miss Possible? There were reports of you being abducted by the aliens before the attack."

Kim smiled. "Dr. Drakken and I were captured by Warhawk and Warmonga. Ron and Shego came to rescue us."

"You know their names? What happened on that ship?"

Kim frowned. "I'm not sure what you are implying, but these aliens acted very much like many of the super villains I encountered in the past; boasting about their plans, making sure I knew who they were and what they wanted." She ignored Drakken's accusing glare as she continued. "Dr. Drakken and I were put in a holding cell shortly after the invasion began and Warhawk and Warmonga ignored us until we broke out and disabled their ship."

"How could you disable their ship?"

"How did Shego and Ron manage to get to the ship?"

"Is it true that the blue lightning and the red sky just before the explosion of the ship were caused by magic?"

As the attendant explained that all these things were to be considered a military matter until more was found out, Kim and Ron shared a brief glance; it could spell trouble if people started putting one and one together and started to dig deeper into Ron's actions during the Lowardian attack.

Fortunately, the direction of the interview was changed when another reporter addressed Shego. "Miss Go, is it true that you have decided to quit villainy and return to Go City to rejoin Team Go?"

"Hego?" Kim asked in surprise as Shego slapped her hand over her face. Shego's older brother had done a really good job of disguising himself as a reporter, making Kim wonder whether he had gotten inspiration from the Superman comics; he did have some resemblance to the comic's protagonist, especially when he wore glasses like he was at the moment.

"What are you doing here?" Shego growled. "And what gave you the idea that I would come back?"

"So you are considering coming back?" Hego, still posing as a reporter, asked. Kim had to admit that he did a very good job of twisting a story to make it sound more interesting.

And it worked; more reporters began to ask similar questions. Things got really out of hand when questions were asked about Shego's interest in joining Team Possible.

Shego's hands already began to shimmer due to her frustration and annoyance, but once again, the attendant soothed the situation. "I would like to ask you to restrain your questions to the actions during the alien invasion. Questions regarding the future of Miss Go, Dr. Drakken, or a member of Team Possible can be asked in a separate interview or press conference if said persons are willing to attend. Besides, we only have time for a few more questions."

* * *

"Can you believe him?" Shego snapped as the four walked through the backstage area. The last couple of questions had been general, but it was clear that more reporters were at least somewhat interested in Shego's future; most likely exactly what Hego had planned. "I should have pounded him right there."

"I don't think that pounding someone in front of a lot of cameras is the best thing to do," Drakken said, "not if you want to lose your villain cred."

"He made me turn once before," Shego growled, "and he isn't shy of trying it again."

"He's just hoping to get the family back together," Kim suggested, "but Hego is just not too smart about it."

"I still should have hit him," Shego replied. "GHAAH, I really want to hit something."

"Maybe you should consider anger management," Ron said before his mind caught up with him. "I mean, take the anger out… don't look at me like that… KP…"

Kim smirked as Ron tried to find cover behind her, then she turned to the green-skinned woman. "We have been going without a fight for quite a while. If you want, we can have a match."

Shego shrugged. "I guess beating any goody two shoes will work." But it was clear she was interested.

* * *

"I see you've been training," Shego gasped before draining a water bottle.

Kim, also breathing heavily, smirked. "What did you think?"

"It does feel weird though," Ron said, "me not having to stop a doomsday device while watching the two of you fight."

Kim shrugged with a small grin. "It does take the pressure out of the fight."

Shego turned to Ron. "So what about you Stoppable, going to show your new powers?"

Kim frowned. "You know, we haven't put much thought to that. So, can you control those powers now?"

"No more than before," Ron admitted. "But Sensei seems to think I have reached my destiny. I tried to contact him and all he did was leave a message telling me that I now knew what to do."

Shego smirked. "Don't you just love mystic prophecies like that? Anyway, up for another round Kimmie?"

* * *

After a few more sparring matches, Shego left and went to locate Drakken, who had used the opportunity to check out a few of his hidden stashes and see whether they were still unfound. Kim hadn't had the heart to tell him that Global Justice had found the stashes mere days after he had obtained them.

"So you really can't use your powers freely?" Kim asked as she and Ron left for home. "I thought you had full control during the Lowardian invasion."

"So did I," Ron said, "but they still seem to come out only when they are really necessary."

Kim smiled. "And I'm flattered they came out for me. But don't you want to hone them more? Maybe if you explain everything to Sensei he will teach you to control them better."

"Maybe," Ron conceded. "But for now I'm happy with the introspective I got then."

Kim decided not to press the issue; she got the feeling that Ron was still unsure about the Mystical Monkey Powers and that he somehow associated them with Zorpox. And the last thing she wanted to do was get _him_ back to the surface.

* * *

"What kind of mission happened when you were on your way to the ceremony?" Kim's father asked during dinner.

Kim shrugged. "Remember that 'challenge' mission Ron and I did around Christmas? Apparently we won and they wanted to congratulate us, but being villains and all meant that they couldn't just send an invitation."

Mr. Dr. Possible nodded; sometimes it was better not to dig too deeply into Kim's mission life. Things got really confusing really quickly.

"Shego was about to blow that reporter up at the award," Jim then said enthusiastically, changing the subject.

"That was no reporter," Kim replied, "unless Hego decided to switch jobs."

Mr. Dr. Possible muttered something about show people, but didn't respond otherwise.

Shego did seem quite agitated by it though," Kim's mother said, "has she ever talked to someone about her experiences of being a hero and turning to villainy?"

Kim frowned in thought. "I don't think so, and suggesting it can get you in a lot of hurt."

"Well, whatever you did to that Will Du guy seemed to have paid off," Tim said, "He was even polite to us when we met him in the hallway just before the ceremony."

"You mean that Global Justice agent?" Mrs. Dr. Possible asked. "But he was always such a gentleman."

"You only saw one side of him, mom," Kim responded. "But he did turn over a new leaf… I'm more worried about his parents though, they're pretty high up in political business."

"His father is Senator Du?" Mr. Dr. Possible asked, to which Kim nodded. "Wow, you don't want to cross those guys."

"Already did," Kim deadpanned, "apparently they want to take control of GJ. That's also the reason I was put in Dr. Director's position."

Kim's father frowned. "Do they want to take steps against you?"

Kim sighed. "I don't know. But if they do, I'd like to be prepared."

* * *

"Und vhy do I need a suit? My usual attire was always enough."

"Because we still need all advantages to make a good impression. Now let the tailor do his work."

The poor tailor didn't know who he should be more afraid of, the small and volatile German who apparently owned an array of weapons of destruction and whose inseam he was about to measure, or the lawyer who could apparently boss the man around.

At least the tailor did know that he would never take assignment via HenchCo anymore.

* * *

**A/N:** I hope you liked this chapter, more is on the way.


	4. Bad Press

Thanks everyone for reviewing, I hope you enjoy this chapter as well.

**Disclaimer: **Kim Possible and related are the property of Disney which, contrary to common belief, I do not own.

Thanks to _Slipgate _for beta-reading this chapter and giving me some great suggestions.

* * *

**Chapter 4: Bad Press**

Kim looked at the paper on her desk, and then back at Zachary. "Well, they did it. I'm being called to court."

"Good thing we've been preparing then," the older man said with a smirk.

Kim sighed. "I'm not so fond of our tactic either, you know."

Z shrugged. "Welcome to real life."

Kim frowned. "I know when to pick between two evils, but that doesn't mean I like it. I won't stop having ideals just because the world refuses to hold to them."

Zachary smiled with a hint of sadness in his eyes. "I know… I'm glad for it. Why don't we go over this once more?"

Kim was a bit taken aback by the look Z gave her, but she decided to let it go for the time being; there were more important things going on at the moment.

* * *

"Order in the court." The command was unnecessary, as the few attendees were already silent, and the press that was allowed in knew better than to risk getting thrown out. "Everyone rise for the honorable Judge Aldenwood."

After the judge entered and asked everyone to be seated, the officer continued. "Today we have the case of Professor Hans Demenz vs. Miss Kimberly Anne Possible regarding the theft of Professor Demenz's invention, named…" the officer looked at his paper, "…A transportulator."

The judge nodded. "Thank you. The prosecutor may now state his case."

"Thank you," Professor Dementor's lawyer said as he stood up. "Approximately three years ago Miss Possible, while working for Dr. Drakken when he was still a wanted criminal, stole one of Professor Demenz's inventions, which he called a transportulator."

Kim's lawyer gave the redhead a warning gesture as she seemed ready to leap up and declare her side of the story. "Later," she mouthed. Kim nodded reluctantly and relaxed again.

Dementor's lawyer continued. "Miss Possible claimed that Professor Demenz stole the invention and invoked her vigilante right to reclaim it, even though she had no evidence that the device was actually stolen."

"Now, personally I favor Miss Possible's heroic acts very much," the laywer said, with a smile so perfectly innocent, and so foreign Kim was surprised he even managed to put it on. "However, her insistence on working alone or at least as the undisputed leader leaves no room for possible errors in her judgment."

The lawyer turned back to the judge. "So, I am putting two points forward. First of all compensation for Professor Demenz, and second a request to have Miss Possible removed from leadership functions in any official law enforcement until she can officially prove she is qualified."

Kim's lawyer, a young woman who already worked for GJ and had been recommended by Z, leaned over to Kim. "Meaning a college-level diploma and at least five years of experience on the job… more than enough time to destroy GJ."

"I would like to ask Professor Demenz to the stand so he can tell us what happened himself."

Dementor, clad in a good-looking and well-fitting suit, stood up and took his place on the stand.

"Could you tell us in your own words what happened?"

"Yes." Dementor coughed and mentally prepared himself for a moment.

"I had recently finizhed my invention, which I had named zhe Transportulator. I had not yet tested it out properly, but given my genius it was certain to work."

The short German glared at Kim as she rolled her eyes. "However, Fraulein Possible stole zhe Transportulator from my own home and even dared to call me zhe thief."

Dementor's lawyer smiled. "Thank you, I have no more questions."

"Does the defense have any questions?" the judge asked.

"We do." Kim's lawyer stood up and walked to the stand.

Kim, knowing what the next questions would be, sighed. "_Why do I get dragged into this?_"

"Professor Demenz, you claimed that the transportulator is your invention, correct?" the defending lawyer asked.

"Yes." Dementor stated.

"Have you placed a patent?"

"No, in zhe vi… in zhe community I work in, patents are normally encouraging colleagues to steal my ideas."

"I see. However, some brief research showed that the patent for the device that you call a transportulator is actually in the possession of the research department of Global Justice… an institute you have been proven to steal from."

Dementor jumped up. "Zhat is because Fraulein Possible gave MY INVENTION to Global Justice."

The female lawyer smiled slightly. "Do you have any witnesses to that allegation?" She turned away from the seething German and faced the judge. "Your honor, I have no further questions."

"I doubt if that is the way Miss Possible sees it," Dementor's lawyer said as he stood up again. "All the witnesses are right here, and even though she has a stake in this case, I highly doubt Miss Possible would want to lie in court."

The judge frowned. "Very well, you may call Miss Possible to the stand."

* * *

After Kim sat down and was sworn in, the lawyer quickly started off. "Miss Possible, did you take the device called a Transportulator from Professor Demenz?"

"Yes, I did," Kim said; there was no reason to deny that.

"And you knew it was stolen?"

Kim hesitated for a moment. "At that time, based on my usually very reliable source and based on Dement… Professor Demenz's track record I was certain enough to err on the side of caution and remove the device from his possession."

The lawyer smiled slightly. "Are you implying that the device might have been Professor Demenz's invention?"

Kim shrugged. "I don't know if it was truly his invention. All I know is that currently the patent resides with the Global Justice science department."

"But do you think Professor Demenz might have created the invention?"

"Objection," Kim's lawyer interrupted. "He's leading Miss Possible."

"Please rephrase your question," the judge said.

Dementor's lawyer thought for a moment. "I would like to withdraw that question and ask a different question. Miss Possible, when you come across a situation like the miscommunication that resulted in this case, who in your team makes the final decision?"

Kim though for a moment, but there was no real getting around the truth here. "I do."

"I see, and what makes you feel qualified for that?"

Kim smirked. "Team Possible happens to have a pretty good track record." Then she turned more serious. "However, our team has developed as well; for quite some time now our team has a more dual leadership." She quickly shot a small smile to Ron, who sat right behind the defense seats.

"Nevertheless, some people might think any member of Team Possible is still too young for the responsibilities you carry," the lawyer insisted. "And frankly, I have yet to see a valid and legal qualification for not only your performance as leader of Team Possible, but also of Global Justice, which is an agency that requires somewhat more expertise than just globe-trotting."

"Objection, this is no longer asking questions," Kim's lawyer stated.

"Is thiz even about my case anymore?" Dementor growled. "It iz MY DEVICE that haz been stolen!"

"Order in the court!" the judge demanded. "Professor Demenz, you should discuss case priorities with your lawyer before court. For now, I see this line of questioning as related to the second point put forward by this case, the question of whether or not Miss Possible is suitably experienced for leadership in law enforcement. If however I feel that there is lack of recognition of your status as plaintiff in this case I will act accordingly." He then turned to Dementor's lawyer. "Do you have any more questions?"

Before the lawyer could say anything, the roof of the courthouse burst open and a group of purple-clad henchmen dropped in.

* * *

"Gemini!" Kim and Ron shouted as one as the leader of WWEE descended down the hole in the roof while his henchmen took care of the guards and then blocked off the doors. The judge's demand for order in the court was ignored completely.

"I thought you would be satisfied now that your sister isn't in charge of GJ anymore," Kim said as she stood up and took a defensive position; she knew her odds were pretty bad with all the bystanders in the room.

Gemini shrugged. "I added destroying Glo…" A small growl from inside his jacket made him reconsider. "…GJ to my to-do list a long time ago." He aimed his bionic hand at Kim. "And now you are going to transfer all jurisdictional power of the organization to me, unless you prefer to be part of this court forever."

"I don't think KP wants to stay here for too long," Ron mentioned.

The one-eyed leader of WWEE smirked. "I meant that the janitor will never be able to remove all the pieces." He turned toward the judge, who took a quick step back. "I guess you can make sure this deal becomes legal."

"Vhat are you doing?" Dementor demanded. "This is my case, I should be the one…" he began, but was shut up when Agent Beta smashed him on the head with a heavy steel bar. Unfortunately for Dementor, his suit did not provide for a helmet, and he went down like a stone.

"What's with the legal thing?" Kim asked, carefully gesturing everyone behind her to move away so she had a better chance at dodging whatever rockets Gemini had up his sleeve this time. "Not really your thing, is it?"

Gemini locked his rockets on target. "Don't even try to dodge these. They will just follow you around." he said, then smirked again. "Don't you think it will be the perfect thing to do? Finally I have the ideal revenge, and even Betty has to admit that she is no match for her older brother."

"You're all just show," a voice from the back of the courtroom said. Kim recognized it as Mr. Du's. "You threaten and make demands, but I have yet to see you make good on even one of them."

Ron stared wide-eyed at Mr. and Mrs. Du, who sat relatively safely in the back of the courtroom. Kim didn't take her eyes off Gemini, but was equally shocked.

Gemini smirked. "Let me show you what I've got… I think you are next in line for GJ leadership, and I have no doubt you will sign it over to me after this." He fired the set of rockets.

Kim rolled backwards, causing the rockets to fly barely over her, but as Gemini had said, the rockets just turned around for the next strike.

As Kim dodged and weaved through the courtroom, trying to avoid the rockets without getting the others in the room in danger, Gemini laughed and added some more rockets to the bunch. That worked until Ron managed to take advantage of his distraction and smashed a chair down on his bionic hand.

"You little runt!" Gemini shouted as his hand shorted out, leaving only the remaining rocket on his index finger working.

Meanwhile, Kim had managed to dispatch the rockets that were chasing her by causing them to crash into the walls.

However, she could only look in shock from the back of the courtroom – where even the Dus had gone in hiding under the seats – as Gemini aimed his last rocket at Ron.

But as Ron backpedalled his Ron Factor kicked in and he stumbled over the chair behind him, causing him to fall backwards and the small missile to fly over him.

However, this put the missile right on course toward the bench where the Dus were hidden.

Not hesitating, Kim threw a chair in front of the rocket, thus keeping the blast away from the senator and his wife. But the blast knocked her away and caused her to crash down in the walkway that ran through the center of the room.

Too dazed to get up immediately, Kim looked up as Gemini approached her, his partially functioning bionic hand crackling with electricity. "Any last words?"

"I do," Ron said as he tried to untangle himself from a couple of chairs. "Global Justice! Global Justice! Global Justice!"

Immediately, loud barking and growling could be heard from inside Gemini's jacket, and a moment later Pepe burst out, jumping around and yapping loudly.

Kim sent Ron a grateful glance as she got up while Gemini chased after his dog, telling it soothing words and generally trying to calm the Chihuahua down.

With the surprise past, Team Possible had little trouble overpowering Gemini and his henchmen. However, due to extensive damage to the courtroom, the court was suspended until the next day.

* * *

"Can you believe it?" Ron growled as he and Kim went home. "They were practically convincing Gemini to shoot you."

Kim sighed. "All this has gotten us nothing but bad stuff. I'll be glad when this is over. And I still have to prepare for my interview at Aberystwyth University."

"Oh yeah…" Ron thought for a moment, trying to remember how much Kim had already told him about the university, other than the strange-sounding name. "Well, how hard could it be?"

"I don't know Ron," Kim admitted, "but I'm still nervous about it. What if they happen to see this whole mess?"

Ron smiled gently. "KP, they would be lucky to have you as their student…"

"Ron, we talked about this. I don't want my fame to influence anything."

"You get extremely high grades, you're very active in student life," Ron continued as if Kim hadn't said a thing. "You'll make a perfect student there."

* * *

The next day, things had changed from bad to weird. Dementor had dropped the case in order to prepare his revenge on WWEE once Gemini broke out of prison, leaving two very annoyed Dus with an increasingly weakening case they were still insisting on continuing.

Half a complement of GJ soldiers filled the courtroom to protect their leader even though Kim hadn't asked for it, but Zachary was there as well and she was pretty sure he had more to do with it. The rest of the courtroom was filled with soldiers since Mr. and Mrs. Du didn't want to be overshadowed by their opponent.

Since even the public area of the smaller courtroom was crowded – the one they used before was still under repairs – most of the assembled press had to take a standing spot.

Even though there was perfect order in the room with all the military-grade attendees, the tension was high and everyone felt at least slightly uncomfortable. The sole exception was Z, who sat completely relaxed between his own bodyguards and looked more like he was going to watch a play than attend a court proceeding.

The Dus' lawyer, after easily having switched from his case for Dementor to the real case against Kim and Global Justice, started again by questioning Kim's credibility to act as leader of Global Justice. He even managed to use what happened the day before against the redhead.

"Is it not so, that if we had similar protection yesterday as we had today, no attack would have happened?"

"I suggested bringing in guards," Kim objected, "but I was overruled because Mr. Du claimed all I wanted to do was intimidate him. And now I see he can raise half a battalion on a day's notice after all."

Kim felt the hand of her lawyer on her shoulder as she started to rise in her seat. She quickly realized that all that her opponent wanted was to get her agitated, which would show particularly bad in the current situation.

Relaxing, she gave the lawyer a half-smile. "I think it shows mainly that neither party was prepared for an attack like what happened yesterday."

Frustratingly for Kim, the lawyer showed nothing regarding how he felt about her claim. "Of course, we are all glad that no severe injuries were caused yesterday."

"However," he continued, "we feel that, in spite of the great potential you are showing, you are not yet experienced enough to take full reign of Global Justice. Therefore we, that is, my clients, have decided to support the return of Elizabeth Director as general commander of the organization."

Kim was completely taken by surprise by the decision. She shot a helpless glance at Z, but he only grinned slightly.

Fortunately, Kim's lawyer was quick to recover – even though Kim suspected her of having more information than she had – and responded quickly. "Thank you, your support will go a long way in the case against Dr. Director and our efforts to return her to her former seat."

Kim looked at the Dus for a moment and noticed they were not happy with it; it seemed more as if they had reluctantly agreed with the least damaging plan.

The Dus' lawyer turned back to the judge. "We would, however, like to obtain a written agreement from Miss Possible that she will do anything in her power to return Dr. Director to her former position, unless there is sufficient independent evidence that Dr. Director is no longer capable of commanding Global Justice."

"I already agreed to that," Kim said. "You too have a copy of that."

"You agreed to return command if and when Dr. Director was freed of the charges against her," the lawyer replied. "We want your agreement that you will not hinder the progress of lifting those charges in order to remain commander of Global Justice."

Kim shrugged. "Of course, that was my intention all along. I do, however, need some time to go over this contract with my advisors before signing," she added after the Dus' lawyer placed a prepared document on her table.

"Of course." The lawyer turned back to the judge again. "Upon receiving agreement from Miss Possible we will drop all charges and consider this a settlement."

* * *

"Okay, what's the sitch?" Kim asked later that day as she, her lawyer and Zachary held a meeting.

Z grinned. "They broke. The Dus are starting to realize that you are a worse opponent than Betty ever was. So they're trying to return the status quo to where they did have some leverage."

Kim frowned. "So, why did you two keep me out of the loop?"

"I'm sorry," Z replied, "we wanted to make sure the Dus thought this was their own idea."

Kim glared at the man. "You know, I'm starting to get sick of being used as a puppet everywhere. I do have a life, you know." She then tapped her fingers on the unsigned document. "I haven't yet signed the document, and you just pretty much told me I can hold practically unrivalled power if I want to."

For the first time, Zachary was taken aback a bit; but one look in the redhead's eyes told him she was not in the mood for more games, or vague statements for that matter.

"Very well," he conceded. "I've been in this business for so long that mind games have become a second nature."

Kim frowned, but said nothing.

"Global Justice is a power to be reckoned with," Z explained. "It's the single largest worldwide organization with the right to hold military-style operations. The power structure is very conflicting, even more so than between other organizations. So, many years ago an umbrella organization was set up to form the spill of balance between the multitude of law organizations, and that's where I come in."

"Even though I have technically no real power on my own, I do in principle hold a majority of votes between the organizations," he continued, "so no single organization can act out on its own. And even if they try, I have the right to obtain supreme command for a period of time, as happened with GJ."

Kim nodded; slowly she was getting the picture. And it immediately struck her that things like this didn't have to happen if the focus was a bit less on personal gain and a bit more on working together to a common goal.

She was now also starting to see where this system would fail. "And GJ has grown too big for its own good, right?"

"More or less," Zachary agreed. "Global Justice holds more power through their international structure than the other organizations. However, the main issue is in the pyramidal structure of GJ, ending in one seat of power for the entire organization."

Kim could see how that could cause problems, especially if that seat could be shaken like what had happened recently. "But I still don't get what the Dus want with GJ. They could be wedged out as easily as Dr. Director, right?"

"The Dus want to militarize Global Justice and focus it as a US power."

Kim shrugged, confused. "Don't we already have a military that makes a pretty big statement?"

Kim's lawyer had been silent throughout most of the discussion, but now she chimed in. "Global Justice has one more ace up their sleeve; they can enter a lot of countries with a large group of agents without declaring war to said country. It wouldn't even raise eyebrows with most other countries, because of pre-existing agreements."

Now Kim was getting it. "So they can build an occupying force whenever they like without hurting any convention?"

"Yes," Z said with a slow nod. "And that will open the organization to corruption."

"Okay… so decentralize the power," Kim replied. "That way, no one can just take over."

The GJ lawyer grimaced slightly. "We could do that, but this is both GJ's weakness and strength. The centralized power means that GJ can immediately respond everywhere."

"I guess," Kim said reluctantly as she pulled the document toward her to sign it. "But I don't think that made GJ too popular with some people."

Z smiled. "And that was another reason we needed you in the seat of power."

* * *

"So, this is how it's going to be?" Shego asked as she dodged a punch from her opponent and returned with a leg sweep. "One of us gets upset, calls the other, we have a fight and blow off steam?"

"Pretty much," Kim agreed as she pressed her attack, only to have Shego flare up her plasma and drive the teen back.

Shego smirked. "Fine with me. So, why not Stoppable?"

"I don't like to blow off steam against Ron," Kim admitted while nimbly dodging a series of plasma bolts from the former villainess. "I tend to hold back since I don't want to hurt him."

"So I'm just a punching bag?" Shego inquired as she tried to get a hit in.

Kim shrugged, making use of the fact that Shego needed a moment to recover after shooting a lot of plasma to get into the older woman's defense. "You can take it."

Shego grinned and kicked at Kim to keep her out of her direct range. "So now I'm the one having to hold back instead?"

Kim smirked. "You may have held back a little, but only to lure me in too deep. It's not like you're suddenly going to reveal you've been fighting with one hand behind your back all the time."

"I could be holding back," Shego huffed with a mocking grin. "There are things about me and my powers you don't know… yet."

"Try me," Kim replied as she circled her opponent. "Most of the time your plasma is just a lightshow to confuse your opponent, because actually powering up takes you more energy than several minutes of intense fighting. The plasma bolts are bio-energetic and tend to be able to only burn non-living materials while the shockwave of plasma transfer knocks over or knocks out living targets when you hit them. And when someone holds your hands while you flare up, the plasma dissipates harmlessly between you two, causing a tingling feeling."

Shego was impressed. "You've been doing your homework. Some of that I didn't even know before Drakken tried to figure out how my plasma worked."

Kim grinned smugly. "Wade has been scanning a lot during our fights… Drakken tried to understand your powers? Was that during the time he was bald most of the time we fought you two?"

Shego smirked. "Haven't seen many of his experiments go wrong that bad."

"Anyway," Kim said. "I also happen to know that you need quite a bit of rest after our more straining fights, even though you try to conceal it as being lazy. Your plasma use is draining you even right now. In prolonged fights I plainly have the advantage."

"Alright," Shego admitted. "You're pretty well-read on my powers, but there's still a lot more to me that you don't know. Like, just the other night, Dr. D and I tried page 56 of the Kama…"

"Not listening!" Kim cried and quickly covered her ears. She only found out her mistake a moment before Shego drove a knee into her stomach.

The redhead retaliated with a weak kick that knocked Shego back, but it was clear that the green-skinned woman had the advantage now.

"Okay… you're still full of surprises," Kim groaned as she tried to recover from the blow.

Shego grinned as she approached the redhead. "Say it…"

Kim glared at her opponent. "Fine… you win. You're the better fighter… this time." She couldn't help but add.

But Shego was already satisfied. "Well, you did fight reasonably well, you'll get there someday."

Kim grimaced as she sat down and drank a swig of water from one of the water bottles that stood on the gym bench. "At least you're not trying to kill me anymore."

Shego sobered. "That's a mutual feeling." She decided to change the subject. "So, how did they get you so riled up in the first place?"

Kim shrugged. "Turns out that the whole plot of making me leader of GJ was not only to mess with the Dus, it was also to give GJ a better image by associating it with me."

"So? They used you as a figurehead, big whoop."

Kim sighed. "Don't get me wrong, I don't dislike attention, and I enjoy getting appreciation for the work I do, but on a personal level. I don't like being a celebrity. No matter how much fun some people say it is, it completely messes with your life."

"I get that," Shego replied in agreement. "Hego likes to soak it up though. And people wonder why I split."

Kim wanted to ask why Shego _had_ split and what happened afterwards – Hego's original story sounded pretty biased – but she was afraid that the older woman would just clam up. "Is he still bothering you about rejoining Team Go?" she asked instead.

"No," Shego said. "He's smart enough to only pick public places for that, where there is sufficient press around." The ex-villainess grinned maliciously. "Next time he tries it, I do have a reply ready though."

Kim frowned. "Do you really think smart talk will change anything?"

"You underestimate me Kimmie," Shego replied. "Two can play his game."

* * *

"So, after all our effort, we managed to get Dr. Director back in command?" Mr. Du asked angrily.

"We just weren't prepared for Possible to handle herself that well," one of his advisors said in apology.

"And that old man trying to polish up Global Justice during his little game didn't work out too well for us either," another added.

The senator seemed like he was going to explode for a moment, but then he composed himself. "Fine, what happened, happened. We just have to make sure Possible will never get into the seat of command again, not as long as she has the amount of public appreciation she has now."

"Dr. Director's days as commander are still numbered," Mr. Du's lawyer responded. "This fiasco will still make it clear that it is starting to become time for her to look for a replacement."

"But our goodwill gives Possible a good chance to obtain that seat anyway," the advisor objected.

"We just have to make sure she doesn't want that job," Mr. Du replied. "And I have the feeling that won't even be too difficult."

* * *

"Shego, are you all right?" Drakken asked as he walked out of his lab. Ex-villain or not, he did enjoy his experiments.

Shego frowned; she had just been sitting on the couch. "Why?"

"You're sitting on the couch, the TV is off, you're not listening to music and you're not laying down even though you had a pretty heavy fight… match with Kim Possible."

Shego stared at Drakken. "Who are you, and what did you do with Dr. D?"

Drakken shrugged. "Can't I be observant?"

"You never were before," Shego retorted.

"Just because I didn't mention my concerns because I was scared you would hurt me doesn't mean I didn't notice when something was wrong," the former villain replied.

Shego stared at him again for a moment, but then she sighed and slumped down on the couch again, gesturing Drakken to join her.

"Dr. D, what would you consider your best plan when we were still villains?"

Drakken frowned. "Considering they all failed…"

Shego rolled her eyes.

"Fine," Drakken conceded. "I'd say the Diablo plot was my best plan, it had everything, was perfectly orchestrated… basically, if I hadn't insisted on keeping Kim Possible around to rub my victory in more, we would have won."

Shego nodded. "That was my thought as well. Do you have the feeling that things changed afterwards?"

"What, with those two becoming a couple?" Drakken asked. "Oh, you mean for us," he added after noticing Shego's frown.

He thought about it for a moment. "Not that much for me actually, although failing my best plot and then having you leave me in jail two times in a row did hurt quite a bit."

Shego looked away, somewhat embarrassed. But Drakken was starting to get curious. "What do you mean? Why do you ask?"

The green-skinned woman sighed. "When we met Kim for the first time, I didn't really care; she was just a nuisance. But later on, as those two kept stopping our plans, well… I've been trying to get Kim out of the game, permanently."

Drakken shrugged, slightly uncomfortable. "It's not like you were best buddies, even I noticed that."

Shego chuckled, but quickly turned serious again. "She never tried that with me… until that moment at the tower."

Drakken knew immediately what she meant; the teens had pulled the gloves off for real there. But he also knew that Shego had been the one on the worse end of what happened.

"I saw the look in her eyes there," Shego went on to explain. "She was out for blood… and she reminded me of myself."

Drakken looked up; Shego had never mentioned that before.

But just as her talkative mood had risen, Shego shut down completely. "Oh well… I am pretty tired. See you tomorrow Dr. D."

For quite some time after Shego went to bed, Drakken remained on the couch, thinking about his former enforcer, current lover and, dare he say, best friend.

* * *

**A/N: **Sorry for the long wait, I'l try to speed up things, but work is eating up more time than I expected. I hope you liked this chapter though. Reviews are always welcome.


	5. Preparing for College

Thanks everyone for reviewing, I'm sorry for the long wait. I hope you enjoy this chapter as well.

**Disclaimer: **Kim Possible and related are the property of Disney which, contrary to common belief, I do not own.

Thanks to _Slipgate _for beta-reading this chapter.

* * *

**Chapter 5: Preparing for College**

"Well, it took some time, but we can finally move in again," James Possible proudly said as he, his wife and their children stood in front of their recently completely repaired home.

Mrs. Dr. Possible smirked. "It's not as if we didn't come in yesterday to place the furniture in the living room."

"Let me have this moment," Mr. Dr. Possible replied, having a smile on his face as well. "Today we're really moving back in."

"It took long enough," Kim remarked. At first, reconstruction had gone really fast, but things slowed down quite a bit when several construction crews refused to work on the house anymore. Eventually, the Possibles didn't want to abuse the hospitably of the Stoppable family anymore and had moved to a reasonable motel for the time being, although Kim had successfully fled living in the relatively small motel in the same room as her brothers by using GJ's barracks. But with Dr. Director returning and Kim feeling used by Global Justice, she hadn't been feeling too well about that anymore either.

"I still can't believe they thought the house had eaten their truck," Jim said.

"It was just standing in the garage," Tim added.

Although one wheel and both bumpers were missing," Mr. Dr. Possible pointed out. "And apparently another truck has never been seen again."

His wife shrugged. "Just some practical joke getting out of hand." She then glared at her sons. "Or did you have any experiments hidden in the basement?"

"Of course not," Jim objected.

"All our experiments were destroyed when that Lowardian walker busted in." Tim explained.

"We didn't have anything in the basement, and you wouldn't let us do experiments at the Stoppables, or at the motel."

Kim chuckled. "Well, I'm glad I took the GJ barracks."

"Okay, okay. Come on, let's put away the last boxes, and then we can go out for dinner," Mrs. Dr. Possible said.

* * *

"Thank you so much for this dinner," Mrs. Stoppable said as the Possibles and the Stoppables were celebrating the reconstruction of the Possible home during a nice dinner at Chez Couteaux.

"It was the least we could do after you let us stay with you after the invasion," Mrs. Dr. Possible replied with a smile.

"Not a problem at all," Mr. Stoppable said. "Or should I say 'no big?'" he added, smiling at Kim. "We had enough spare rooms, and we surely couldn't let you stay in the crummy motels that survived the Lowardian attack."

"Well, we might as well enjoy this dinner, because it might be quite a while before we can do this again," Anne said, "with Kim and Ron going off to college soon."

Immediately, Kim's easy smile faltered a bit.

Ron, sitting next to his girlfriend, noticed her mood change. "Are you still afraid of that meeting next week?"

"A little bit," the redhead admitted. "I kinda wish you, or mom or dad could come with."

Her parents smiled apologetically. "Sorry Kimmie, but with the restart of the space program I can't be missed at the space station."

"And I've got an operation to separate Siamese twins coming up," Kim's mother added. "If this meeting had been two weeks sooner…"

"I'll be fine… I hope," Kim replied with a somewhat convincing smile. "It's just too bad that Ron has to attend his college introduction on the same day."

"At least I don't have to prove myself for the college application," Ron said jokingly. "…Maybe I should cook them something…" he then added after some thought.

Kim smirked. "You'll be attending a massive meeting, and receive a talk from the dean of the University. I've seen such a thing when Felix and I went there for our advanced placement classes; you have nothing to worry about… You could make some friends though if you bring those delicious sugar puff crackers."

"You'll have a one-on-one talk, right?" Ron's mother asked.

Kim nodded. "It's because my application ran through the foreign student section, but apparently they're pretty strict to British students as well."

Ron squeezed Kim's shoulder. "Just be yourself, and you'll breeze through."

"I hope so." Kim picked Ron's hand from her shoulder and briefly laced her fingers through his. "Yeah… I _will_ be fine." Her smiled slowly returned. "So, still no babysitter for Hana?" she then asked Mr. and Mrs. Stoppable as they took turns trying to feed the energetic toddler.

"Not one who's not sitting at this table," Ron replied with a grin.

"We tried to find a babysitter," Ron's mother explained. "But most of them ran when they saw Hana running on the ceiling."

"And it was a good thing we waited some time to see if Hana liked the only one who stayed," Mr. Stoppable added. "Because I don't think she would have made it through the night."

Kim chuckled. "Suddenly, my problems don't seem like so much anymore."

* * *

"Have a good flight Kimmie," Kim's father said as Kim's parents saw her off to the airport. "And we'll see you in three days."

"With a university admittance," Kim's mother added.

Kim smiled, but it was clear she was becoming nervous again. "Thanks mom and dad. I'll be fine." She then turned to Ron. "Now, if you'll excuse us for a moment."

Ron was taken a bit by surprise. "KP, this is a pretty public place, you know?"

Kim smirked. "I need to load up on Ronshine, and I want to wish you good luck too on your first day in college."

"Pshh, it's just a speech," Ron said. "It will take almost another month before college really starts."

* * *

"_Flight 5921 to Birmingham, UK will depart from Gate 7. Boarding will start in 30 minutes."_ was announced over the airport intercom.

"That's my flight," Kim said as she picked up her carry-on bag. "See you guys in a few days."

Although Wade could probably have provided her with a private plane, Kim had decided to go at this as regular as possible; she refused to use her hero status to gain favors outside of her hero business. The few times she (or Ron) had tried that, she had felt terrible about it, and it almost always came back to her anyway.

Of course, when she went through security, she was immediately reminded of her status. The additions GJ – amongst others – had made to her and Ron's passports would get her past security with a running chainsaw if she wanted to.

"Have a nice flight," the security officer said. Then he looked around and tried to ask casually, "Mission?"

Kim smiled. "Biggest one yet, college."

The officer grinned. "Best of luck then."

* * *

The flight to England went well, even though Kim had to get used again to the relatively slow commercial travel. It did give her the chance to catch up with some reading though.

When she arrived in Birmingham, it was early morning in England, but the meeting was planned for the next day, giving Kim plenty of time to take the train to Aberystwyth and check in to the hotel. She even had some time left to walk around a bit.

Sightseeing Aberystwyth turned out to be a good idea; the town was fairly active and a walk over the beach was quite refreshing after the flight.

Kim quickly noticed that not many students were around at the moment. She did hear several locals commenting that it wouldn't take long before the students would return for the school year.

Even though the redhead was slightly disappointed that she wouldn't meet many students in the next couple of days, she was a bit relieved as well; finding your way through a horde of students was not easy, as she had learned from the classes she had taken at Upperton University.

* * *

The next morning, after taking a shower and finding out she had forgotten her own shampoo, Kim quickly learned that hotel shampoo did not agree with her hair.

"Come on…" she muttered as her usual mane of red hair refused to do anything else other than stand out in every direction, no matter what she tried.

Of course, similar things had happened on or after missions, and Kim knew that the only solution was tying her hair in a ponytail. That was the only way it looked somewhat reasonable.

Normally, during missions this was not a problem, as no one had any problem with the occasional hairs jumping out of the scrunchy. But during an interview it wasn't the best option.

Kim sighed. "Oh well, as long as it stays put." Usually, it took some time before the first hairs popped out, and since she had let her hair grow out a bit she should be good. "Just a quick check right before the interview, and I should be fine."

* * *

As she walked across the campus, Kim spotted a couple of students who appeared to be arguing about something. She walked over to ask them directions to the office of her contact person.

"I'm telling you, it's not a fake," a blond-haired student said as he held up a magazine. "She is really going to attend Aberystwyth."

His friend, sporting shoulder-length dark hair and a small goatee, looked skeptical. "A popular magazine that is telling the truth? Well, forgive me for having doubts… of course, I wouldn't mind trying to get a date with _the_ Kim Possible."

Kim looked up when she heard her name, and then she recognized the magazine the student was holding; it was one of the series of magazines with her face on the cover, speculating how her career would continue after High School, apparently, they had gotten wind about her preference to go to Aberystwyth.

Before she could say anything though, the third person of the group, a girl who looked to be a little younger than the other two, huffed. "Do you really think Kim Possible would even want to go on a date with either of you? Anyway, don't you know she's seeing someone?"

The dark-haired student smirked. "Also from the magazine?"

The girl looked down for a moment. "Well… Yes…"

Then she noticed Kim approaching. "Can I help you?"

Kim managed to withhold a grin. "Yes, I'm looking for the office of Professor…" she looked at the paper she was holding, "Wati Dita."

"Ah, you must be a foreign student then," the girl replied. "I'm Gwen, and these are Matt," she pointed at the blond student, "and Jason." she finished while pointing at the dark-haired one.

"Pleasure meeting you," Matt said with a gentleman's smile. Jason nodded but said nothing.

"Let me show you to Professor Wati Dita's office," Gwen offered. "It's a bit tricky because his department's wing is in between two other buildings."

"Thanks," Kim replied. "I'm Kim, by the way."

* * *

"Don't mind Matt and Jason," Gwen said as they walked across the campus. "They're nice guys, but they can get a bit too obsessed with what's in popular magazines."

Kim smirked. "As opposed to you?"

Gwen chuckled. "So you heard that last part, huh? Well, we're usually not that bad, but it is pretty cool that someone like Kim Possible is going to attend Aberystwyth."

This time, Kim had to look away to hide her grin.

"So, you're from the USA?" Gwen then asked.

Kim nodded. "Yes, I'm going to study International Law and Politics."

"Ah, then you will probably run into Jason a lot more," Gwen said. "He's studying Diplomacy, and those tracks have a lot of classes in common."

"Really? Matt looked more like the diplomatic type to me," Kim replied.

Gwen chuckled. "Jason doesn't open up too quickly to others. He is really good at diplomacy though. When he was fifteen he was chosen to organize and host the ten-year anniversary of our High School's exchange program."

She then shook her head. "Matt is a really nice guy, but diplomacy is not for him. He and I both study Biology."

"So, you seem to know Jason pretty well?" Kim asked, curious, but trying not to probe.

Gwen grinned. "We're cousins, and we grew up in the same town. I know him better than I know my little brother."

Kim looked Gwen over; she didn't spot much family resemblance between her and Jason. Then she shrugged. "Well, don't worry. Jason can be as diplomatic as he wants, but I've got my own guy back at home. At least that magazine got that one right."

"Oh, you heard that as well," Gwen replied with an embarrassed smile, but then Kim's last sentence settled in. Her smile faltered and her eyes grew wide. "But… but… you…"

Kim chuckled. "I guess my hair really is my trademark."

Gwen still stared dumbfounded at the young woman. "You… you're Kim Possible. Oh my… And I didn't even see it at first… wait until I tell Matt and Jason about this."

Kim smirked. "I hope that doesn't happen every time I meet someone new here."

Gwen looked back at the redhead with another embarrassed smile. "Sorry, you just caught me by surprise. I'm usually not this silly. But still, it is nice to meet a celebrity."

"And I'm sorry I didn't tell you immediately," Kim replied. "But when I saw the three of you with that magazine, I was almost afraid you were going to recognize me. And when you didn't, I just went with it."

Gwen frowned. "Why didn't you want to be recognized?"

"I'd like to be a normal student here," Kim explained. "Back in the US I received a lot of college acceptance letters from universities that only wanted to have me as their student because of my celebrity status. That, and I was already a bit nervous about meeting Dr. Wati Dita," she added self-consciously.

Gwen looked at her questioningly. "Why? He's a really nice guy, and a good teacher too. I took a course of General Linguistics from him."

"I thought you studied biology?" Kim asked.

"I do," Gwen explained. "I want to study the history and evolution of language in humans, but also in other animals."

Kim smirked. "You should have a talk with Ron and Rufus."

Gwen chuckled, slightly confused. "Anyway, Professor Wati Dita is a very nice man. You don't have to worry one bit. Oh, we're here." She pointed at the office with the name 'Prof. Dr. C. Wati Dita' on the door.

"Thank you very much," Kim said. "I hope we'll meet again when I start my study here."

As the girl smiled and walked off, Kim turned to the secretary. "Hi, I have an appointment with Professor Wati Dita at ten. My name is Kim Possible."

The secretary nodded and briefly looked at her computer screen to verify. "Ah yes, Miss Possible. Chahel is currently in a meeting, but he can arrive back any minute now."

* * *

"Shego, is everything okay?" Drakken asked when he walked in on Shego as she was setting up breakfast.

For the past couple of days, the ex-villainess had been acting a bit strange. Drakken figured she was trying to re-evaluate her life during the transition from villain to… well, Drakken wasn't sure what they were right now either, but he had given Shego her space and had tried not to stick his nose in her business.

But this morning, the green-skinned woman had a strange spark in her eyes that spelled mischief.

"Better than ever," Shego replied, her grin never leaving her face.

"You're not going to rob a bank, are you?" Drakken asked nervously. "I have this big speech at the end of the week and I'd like it if my… our reputation still looks good by then."

Shego smirked; after Drakken had finally received the recognition he had always been after – by helping saving the world – he had started making plans to use his mad genius energy for a good purpose – good for the general community this time.

Still being somewhat of a megalomaniac, he had decided to start big and set up a program "Bad to a Better Cause" in which villains could try their skills on something other than world domination.

Currently, he had only managed to snare his cousin Ed – after offering the motor maniac a chance to do something with one of the biggest scrap heaps in the US –and Frugal Lucre. Actually, Lucre had snared Drakken into taking him along – he'd pretended to be another villain by wearing his fake moustache and goatee, something that still cracked Shego up when she heard it again.

But even with only three ex-villains the plot had some promise, and after approval from Global Justice, Drakken was allowed to explain his proposal about BtBC (unfortunately for him, the brand name 'BBC' was already claimed).

"Don't worry Dr. D," Shego said. "But if you don't mind, I'd like to use some time after your speech, during question and answer for the press."

Drakken shrugged. "Sure, they'll ask you questions anyway… especially that annoying big guy who keeps insisting you claimed to return to Team Go."

"I know," Shego replied with a predatory grin. "I think it's time to give a definitive answer to that one."

* * *

"Welcome to Aberystwyth," said Professor Wati Dita as he offered Kim a seat. He was an Indian man who reminded Kim vaguely of her father's friend and colleague Dr. Ramesh. "Did you have a good flight?"

"Thank you, I did," Kim replied. She was still a bit nervous, but the professor was clearly experienced at setting new students at ease.

"Would you like something to drink?"

"Coffee please, black."

He nodded and turned to his secretary, who sat in the adjoining room. "A coffee for Miss Possible and a tea for me please."

As the secretary walked off to get the drinks, Chahel took a seat as well. "Could you tell me what made you chose Aberystwyth University?"

Kim took a breath and tried to remember what she wanted to say; she had prepared a series of possible answers for that particular question, but none of them seemed really genuine.

She decided to just start and see where it took her. "Well, for some time I've been wanting to study abroad and actually see some of the world instead of just passing by and only getting glimpses. And the foreign student program for International Law and Politics at Aberystwyth really appealed to me."

"I'm happy to hear that," the professor replied. "But universities like Harvard have a similar, if not equal, program. I'm not trying to downplay our university, but what made you chose Aberwystwyth? Given your resume and extracurricular classes, you would be accepted pretty much everywhere."

Kim smiled at the compliment. "Thank you. However, many big universities that accepted me didn't do it because of my student results… They wanted a share in the fame too. Several even included a clause to have me attend press conferences for them."

Professor Dita grinned. "Well, you don't have to worry about that here. The only thing we would like is that you wear an Aberystwyth student or alumnus vest during your missions."

"I'm sorry," he laughed after seeing Kim's stunned expression. "I've been planning that joke for days. My apologies if I offended you."

"No, it's just…" Kim was interrupted when the drinks were brought in.

The professor took a sip from his tea. "I have been in contact with several of the references you put in your application form, and I am aware that you want to be as normal a student as possible."

Kim nodded.

"And that is what we would like too." He turned serious. "However, I also understand that you will want to continue your missions?"

Kim nodded. "Yes, I have been thinking about this a lot, and I don't want to ruin my study over it, but I don't think I can just leave the missions. I will try to pick only the ones that really need Team Possible though."

"That would be best," the professor agreed. "But you will still have to clear it with your teachers. Some of them might not be too happy about you leaving or not showing up for classes. This isn't High School anymore… they won't fail you for not showing up on some classes, but they can refuse entrance to classes when you're late."

Kim gulped, but nodded. "I understand, and I will do my best not to have any classes interrupted."

"That sounds fair. By the way, do you fancy a tour around some of the campus? It is lovely weather at the moment, and I doubt it will matter if we talk here or on the way."

The redhead smiled. "That sounds great… if it doesn't take too much of your time."

He chuckled. "Not at all. A walk will be good for me anyway."

* * *

"Shego?" Hego's voice was one of complete surprise over the phone, and then one of worry. "Is everything all right?"

"Of course," Shego replied in a casual voice. "You know, I have been thinking a lot recently about your proposal for letting me back on the team, and I think you've got a point."

"Really?" It was clear Hego was trying – and failing – to hide his excitement. "I mean, you really want to come back to Team Go?"

"Yes," the green-skinned woman said. "Is it really that hard to believe? I used to be a hero, you know. And now that the villainy is pretty much over for me and Dr. D… I need to see some action."

"That's so great," Hego replied happily. "When are you coming over?"

"Well… I was thinking we'd make it a bit more official," Shego said. "You know, Dr. D is having that 'Bad to a Good Cause' speech going on next Friday. Could you do that reporter act one more time? That way we don't have to keep on telling everyone that I'm back on the team."

"Sure, no problem," the Go City superhero quickly promised.

"Oh, and one more thing," Shego then said. "I may not live all the time in the Go Tower, but I'd really like to rebuild the attic into my new room. Can you live with that?"

"Of course! _Anything_ for my sister!" Hego replied.

"I mean, it will probably take some cleaning up, as you have probably forgotten for all those years, but I think I can make something of it."

Hego chuckled. "You're right about that one. We're pretty much useless without you in that regard. You are the girl for the job."

"Okay, see you Friday."

As Shego hung up the phone, she looked at Drakken, who stared back at her with his jaw wide open.

"What?" she asked with an amused grin.

"He just insulted you in a way no one ever insulted you… not without severe injury at least…" the ex-villain frowned in thought for a moment. "Who are you and what did you do with my girlfriend?"

"Relax, you'll understand Friday…" Shego frowned. "So, I'm your girlfriend now, huh?"

Drakken's eyes widened as he realized what he had just said. "Uhm…"

But Shego approached him with a mischievous grin. "Well, boyfriend… how about a little sugar for your girl?"

Drakken's eyes widened in realization when Shego knocked the offered sugar pot from his hands. "Oh…" he managed before he was silenced by Shego's lips pressing down on his.

* * *

"Thank you very much for the tour," Kim said. "I would def… initely have gotten lost on my own in those buildings," she added with a grin.

Professor Wati Dita chuckled. "The older buildings on the campus do have a reputation of having strange architecture. But don't worry; you will be able to find your way in no time. We've never had to rescue lost students."

He looked at his watch. "I believe you have a lunch meeting with one of our students and a tour over at the dorms later?"

"Yes," Kim said. "Alex I believe her name was. She's a senior student in International Law and Diplomacy, right?"

"Yes, next year she's going to start her Ph.D. at the University of Delhi, where I have a co-chair in the Linguistics Department."

"Wow… and here I thought I went far abroad for study."

The professor chuckled. "I'm sure you two will get along. Tell Alex I said hello."

* * *

"Thanks for taking out time from your graduation schedule," Kim said as she and Alex were having lunch in the main cafeteria of the campus.

"I'm glad to do it," Alex replied with a smile. "And it's good to be away from my final project for an afternoon. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoy the research, but sometimes my supervisor can be really obnoxious about how I write my report."

Kim grinned. "I know people who can be like that. So, what's your project about?"

"It's a study about how the English language was formed through diplomatic interaction between the Europeans and the natives on the British Islands," Alex explained. "I'm mainly focusing on the development of then recently invented words compared to that of already established words."

"Wow… sounds difficult."

"Well, once you get into it, it's really interesting," Alex said. "Speaking about interesting, shall we visit the dorms?"

Kim grinned. "Sure."

* * *

"This is my dorm," Alex said as she opened the door and led Kim into a fairly small hallway that ended in a set of stairs. A door to the side led to the common room. "I live here with two other students. There is room for one more, but she left about a month ago when she graduated."

The building looked like it used to be a regular house, but had been adapted to fit several students; the living room and kitchen area were standard for a family home, and also the upstairs bathroom looked normal, if relatively spacious.

"That's pretty much everything we share and have to keep clean together," Alex explained as she unlocked the door to her own room. "Our own rooms have separate keys, and we're pretty much free to do with it as we please, within reason of course."

Kim looked through the room; it seemed fairly well cleaned, if a bit messy with clothes discarded on the bed, papers laying around everywhere, and books piles up on the desk and on the floor.

The redhead smirked. "Almost like my own room just before my mom orders me to clean up."

Alex chuckled. "That's the advantage of living on your own. Although I should have cleaned up a bit, but with a project like mine it's handy to have everything within reach."

"I bet," Kim replied. "So, does every student have their own sink in their room?"

"Yes… we also have television and Internet connection, although we share the cable," Alex said. "But you'll get even better. They're finishing the new student dorms this month, and all the freshmen will be located there."

"I did read something about that in the acceptance letter," Kim mused. "But doesn't that interfere with mingling with the existing students?"

Alex shrugged. "Students who wanted to move to the new dorms were ensured a room if they agreed to becoming a student counselor for the freshmen. It will be something like a dorm parent where you can go to for questions or who can give you advice or locations for cool parties." The latter she added with a grin. I can show you the new dorms. Construction is still underway, but I think we can walk into some of the buildings."

"Sounds great."

"By the way, since I have the afternoon off, I switched the cooking schedule so I can cook today. Would you like to have dinner with us?" Alex offered.

"I'd love to," Kim replied. "I can help if you like… although I'm not such a good cook."

Alex laughed. "Neither was I when I got here. You'll learn in the process."

* * *

"Wow, this looks really nice," Kim commented as she and Alex walked around the construction site. Most of the construction had been finished, so students were allowed to walk around the buildings as long as they didn't bother the workers who were installing the windows, plumbing, and cables.

"I'd say," Alex agreed. "I haven't been here often, but this is starting to look really good. Almost makes me wish I had a couple more years here."

"You two getting a room here?" one of the workers who was on break asked.

"I am," Kim said.

"Looks like I have to make take extra care with installing the windows then," the young man, about Alex's age, replied with a grin.

"Hey Richard!" another worker shouted. "Quit hitting on students and help me place this window."

"Sorry ladies," Richard said, his smile never faltering. "Got to get back to work."

Kim and Alex giggled as the man walked off to help his colleague. "Building a student dorm… must be a dream come true for some of those construction workers."

"I'll say," Alex agreed. "Although he did look cute…"

Kim grinned. "I have my own man back home. No cutie can beat him."

"I hope a long distance relationship will work out for you," Alex said. "My boyfriend and I tried that when he moved to Australia for a year for an internship. We lasted three months before it fell apart. I went over there two months later for a vacation, but it was really over by then."

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that," Kim replied.

Alex smiled. "Thanks, but it wasn't really a bad breakup. It was just, when we hugged at the airport when I arrived, there was nothing. We decided to officially break up a day later. Still had a great vacation after that though, we just cancelled all our 'couple' plans and went on a sailing trip with his friends instead."

Even though it was clear that telling about the breakup hadn't affected Alex, it took Kim a moment to find her smile. "Well, Ron and I go way back. And hopefully he'll be able to come over here in two years as well."

"I'm certain it will work out for you," Alex said. "So, want to see if we can get into one of the buildings and see how it looks on the inside?"

* * *

"Great spaghetti," Alex's roommate Cameron commented. "Too bad for Christa that she has to work tonight."

"I'll save her a plate," Alex responded and began filling an empty plate with spaghetti.

"So you went to see the new dorms?" Cameron then asked. "Did you like them?"

"Like them? It's making me jealous," Alex said with a grin. "Larger rooms, only having to share the shared rooms with one other student, and a _big_ community room in every building for activities. They're really going out of their way for the new students."

Cameron shrugged. "I can remember our dorms being a big step up from what there was before. The grass is always greener on the other side."

"I guess…"Alex turned to Kim. "So, what do you think of Aberystwyth so far?"

After looking at the new dorms, Alex had taken Kim a bit more across the campus and had shown her the bookstore, the student supermarket, and a couple of the relaxation spots. The last actually included the library, which was designed such that students had a lot of privacy and all information close on hand.

"I'm really looking forward to attending here after the summer," Kim said. "But I haven't really lived on my own before, so that will be somewhat of a big step."

"You'll get used to that pretty quickly," Cameron replied.

"Just drop into the student life immediately, or you'll feel very lonely in the evenings," Alex added. "I fell for that one, and my parents don't even live too far from here."

"Don't worry about it too much though. A little homesickness is bound to happen. If you don't dwell on it, you'll be okay."

"Thanks," Kim replied. "Besides, I can always call or chat with home."

Both other girls immediately shook their heads.

"You really don't want to fall for that trap," Alex explained as Kim frowned confused. "If you call your parents because you feel homesick, you'll quickly get addicted to doing that."

"It's no problem calling home occasionally," Cameron added. "But sometimes you have to know to let go… You have to accept that you're becoming your own person."

"It's only difficult for the first week, and then it mainly gets hard for your parents to let go," Alex said with a grin.

Kim grinned half-heartedly. "Yeah… I can imagine mom and dad having some letting go issues…"

However, when she walked back to the hotel later that night, for the first time the implications of her college decision really hit home for Kim.

* * *

"Is my tie good? Isn't this suit too baggy?"

"Dr. D., relax. You look like a charm."

Shego wasn't joking; the tailor-made suit looked splendid on the former villain. The hue of blue complemented his skin color very well and the matte black tie gave him a very professional look.

Even more, as long as he stood straight – something Shego had to remind him of every now and then – the suit really showed off his physique. Drakken might not be ripped, but his upper body was actually pretty nicely toned, something that rarely showed when he was wearing his lab coat and was hunched over a bit.

"Got your plants under control?"

"As long as I don't look at you for too long I'll be fine."

Shego smirked; she was wearing a similar dress as the one she had worn when Drakken had received his medal, and she knew what effect it had on him.

During the past couple of weeks, Drakken had gained considerable control over his plants… at least, the ones that he shared a symbiotic link with. The plants that had grown from his mutagenic formula had all died within days after the Lowardian invasion, and he had forgotten the formula.

However, Drakken and Shego had quickly found out that his plants reacted with his body, and a few teasing moves from Shego were often enough to pop up his petals.

"Just focus on your speech and you'll be fine," the ex-villainess said. "Oh, you did ask Kimmie's computer nerd to make sure she would watch the live show, right? I know she's due to get home from college spotting today."

"I did, although I still don't know why. I mean, I'm flattered, but I don't really get it."

"You'll understand later tonight," was all Shego was willing to let go. "Come on, let's turn some heads."

* * *

**A/N: **I hope you enjoyed this chapter. If you did, let me know. I really hope I can speed up in the posting department for the next chapter.


	6. The New Team Go

****Sorry that it took me so long to to update 'A New Path', but here is the next chapter.

******Disclaimer:** Kim Possible and related are the property of Disney which, contrary to common belief, I do not own.

Special thanks to _Slipgate_ for beta-reading this story.

* * *

**Chapter 6: The New Team Go**

"KP!"

"Ron!"

In the central hall of the Middleton airport, Kim and Ron nearly smashed into each other as they met, Ron managing to twist Kim around so that she nearly twirled a full round around him.

Several passengers laughed and clapped at the display. "Long time no see?" one asked with an amused grin.

Both Kim and Ron blushed. "A couple of days," Kim replied sheepishly.

The man laughed and winked at Ron. "Never let this one go."

Embarrassed by the reception of what started as a playful – although partly true – jab at rejoining with Ron, Kim greeted her parents a bit more modestly.

"Hi mom, dad," she said as she hugged them. "Thanks for picking me up from the airport."

"No problem Kimmie," her mother said. "How was England?"

Kim smiled. "It was great, but it's good to be home."

"Do you think you're up for it?" her father asked jokingly. "Living there for the entire school year?"

Kim sighed slightly. "Well, I've had some time to think about it, and I know it will be pretty tough to be away from you guys for so long." With this, she mainly looked at Ron. "But this is also something that I really want to do. And a chance I may never get again."

"Hoosha!" Jim and Tim cheered. "We get the big room."

"So not," Kim huffed. "Mom?"

"Well…" Mrs. Dr. Possible replied with a grin. "You are leaving for a long time. And Jim and Tim could use some more room…"

"Mo-om," Kim objected half-heartedly. "I won't be in England all the time, where do I have to sleep during the vacation?"

Kim's father started to get into the joke as well. "There's always the guest room. Or, even better, we could turn Jim and Tim's room into a temporary bedroom for when you come over."

"Not funny," Kim muttered as even Ron had to laugh at the joke.

As they walked to the car and started packing Kim's bags in the trunk, Ron suddenly seemed to remember something.

"KP, before I forget, Shego asked me to give you this message." He handed her a small note.

Kim read the note. "Watch Dr. Drakken's presentation live tonight? Why, is it that important? I mean, it's good that they're turning another leaf, but the presentation can't be that interesting." She chuckled. "We have watched some of his rants after all."

Ron shrugged. "She just told me to make sure you watched it."

* * *

"…And so this program will not only create an opportunity for former villains to reconcile, it will also help them turn their inventions to good use, helping the community."

There was complete silence in the room, as no one was sure whether Drakken had finished his speech; he had gone through several end-like pauses already, only to continue momentarily afterwards.

"Thank you," The ex-villain said, slightly defeated by the lack of response.

A polite applause filled the room.

"Are there any questions?" The hostess of the presentation asked.

Many hands rose, raising a happy smile from Drakken.

"Please, only about the presentation," the woman reminded the audience. "Other question can be asked later."

A lot of hands lowered again, and Drakken's smile followed.

However, there were still people with questions.

"How will this be financed?"

Drakken frowned; he was sure he had explained that in his presentation. But then he remembered Shego reminding him that this thing often happened; people barely listened and he had to explain a lot again anyway. And since he was no longer a villain who could threaten such persons with weapons of doom, he would have to deal with it.

Putting on his best smile, he answered, "I'm glad you asked. As I have mentioned in the presentation, a lot of the money will come from the sale of unused lairs, another part will come from the sales of inventions, the safety of which will be overseen by Global Justice. But even then, more investments may be needed until the foundation can become self-sufficient. And that is why we turn to you." He gestured to the audience. "You will not only be investing in a better world, the revenues should be pretty interesting once the ball gets rolling."

The last line had been suggested by Perkins, and Drakken had to admit, judging from the reaction of the audience, it seemed to be working.

The next question followed quickly. "How can we be sure the villains don't fall back to their old habits?"

Drakken had thought long about that one, and he hadn't been able to come up with a satisfying answer until last night, when Shego had gave him the answer in two simple words.

"You don't." Drakken had to suppress a grin at the surprised look of his audience; he had the same look the day before. "But they're villains now, even if only ten percent stays good – and I'm aiming a lot higher than that – you'll have ten percent fewer villains."

The question that followed was obvious. "You're asking us to provide the villains with help and possible lead-ins? We're just going to have to trust them?"

"No," Drakken replied. "The foundation will be doing the trusting part, and will cover damages done by villains falling back while in the program. Global Justice will be closely watching the redeeming villains. All you will be doing is giving the villains a chance to better themselves and investing money with a high estimated degree of return."

Several other questions followed, going more into detail about Drakken's plans, and the former villain did his best to answer them all, eager as he was to get his new plan across.

When there were no more questions about the presentation, the hostess suggested that some general questions could be asked, seeing as Drakken and Shego were still under the interest of the media, even though a lot less so than a couple of months before.

A few general questions were asked, but then a by now familiar journalist stood up.

"Miss Go," the 'reporter' asked, "There have been some new rumors about you reconsidering joining Team Go, can you comment on that?"

Several other reporters sighed; would this guy never give up? It had been interesting at first, but the media wasn't waiting for the same question and the same answer every time.

However, to their surprise, Shego smiled and nodded. "Yes, my brother and I had a good talk and we agreed to reform Team Go… with me as the de facto leader."

Several gasps were heard throughout the auditorium, the reporter's being one of the loudest, but Drakken coming in a close second.

"What?" the reporter who had asked the question finally cried while the other reporters quickly grabbed their recorders and cameras.

Shego's smile turned into a full-blown grin that reminded everyone of her previous villain status; she was clearly enjoying this. "Yes, with my experience and skills, we can put Team Go back on the map as a capable team of heroes, also outside of Go City. Hego fully agreed with me."

"I did… I mean, I cannot believe Hego would say such a thing," the reporter, clearly panicking by now, stated.

"I thought people would think that," Shego replied smoothly. "So we decided to record our conversation." She held a small voice recorder in front of the microphone and pressed 'play'.

* * *

"Shego? Is everything all right?"

"Of course. You know, I have been thinking a lot recently about your proposal for letting me back on the team, and I think you've got a point."

"Really? I mean, you really want to come back to Team Go?"

"Yes. Is it really that hard to believe? I used to be a hero, you know. And now that the villainy is pretty much over for me and Dr. D., I need to see some action."

"That's so great. When are you coming over?"

"Well… I was thinking we'd make it a bit more official. You know, Dr. D is having that 'Bad to a Good Cause' speech going on next Friday. Could you inform that reporter who's been asking me about it? That way we don't have to keep on telling everyone that I'm back on the team."

"Sure, no problem."

"Oh, and one more thing. I think it's time to reconsider the hierarchy in the team. I know this may be a bit of a bombshell right now, but I think that if we want to put Team Go back on the map I should take over the steering wheel, at least for a while to see how it goes. Can you live with that?"

"Of course! _Anything_ for my sister!"

"I mean, I do have a lot of experience built up over the years in the dealings of villains. And I think I'm the most skilled fighter of the team."

"You're right about that one. We're pretty much useless without you in that regard. You are the girl for the job."

"Okay, see you Friday."

* * *

Shego stopped the recording and smiled at the reporter, although no one seemed to notice the malicious glint in her eyes.

Hego stared up at his sister, knowing he was beaten. At least for now; there was no way to resolve anything right there and then without not only losing his secret identity, but probably also a lot of his credibility.

He sighed and managed to force out, "Thank you, I think Team Go will be in for some interesting times."

His silent retreat was drowned in the rain of questions thrown at Shego.

When she finally had a moment for herself, Shego quickly made a phone call.

"Possible residence, Jim speaking."

"Hey, this is Shego, is Kim there?"

"Uh… Kim is not available at the moment, can I take a message?"

Shego frowned. "Oh, I asked her to watch something on TV."

"She did." Shego heard that Jim opened a door, and then she could hear roaring laughter coming from the other room.

"Like I said," Jim said. "Kim is not available at the moment. Your work?" he then asked. "Good job taking her down like that."

Apparently, Kim had overheard them. "Jim… HAHAHA… is that Shego? ….HAHA!" Shego could hear Kim's voice approaching. "Let me talk to her… HAHAHA… If I'm able to…" there was some more laughter, and then Shego heard the phone switch hands.

"Hey Shego," Kim said in a shaky voice, trying to suppress more laughter. "That was really funny."

"Thanks," Shego replied dryly. "I do like to entertain."

Kim finally seemed to get herself under control. "So… are you serious about it? Or was it just the ultimate jab at Hego?"

"Actually, I had been planning for a while now on rejoining Team Go, and get it in real form, not the bunch of misfits we tended to be."

"Aw, come on," Kim objected, an occasional giggle still bubbling up. "You received the key to Go City, then got the Go Tower for free. You couldn't have done that bad."

"Have you seen our villains?" Shego deadpanned. "And the mayor isn't much better; all he wanted was the publicity, and he got it by handing us a flunked hotel. The city liked us because we had entertainment value. Why do you think Team Go fell apart when I left?"

Kim was silent for a moment, thinking about the question. "Ok, fair point. Your brothers aren't the greatest crime fighters, but they're still superheroes."

"Exactly," Shego said. "Without the squabble, and without the girl, Team Go lost their entertainment value real quick."

Kim snickered. "Better bring your more daring suits then."

"I heard that," Shego growled, but with a hint of amusement in her voice. "But what I really want to ask was: is Team Possible still going along with Drakken's plan?"

"Of course," Kim replied. "It's not that I don't like freak-fighting, but if we can turn the villain community, I'm in."

* * *

"Well sis, you really got me." Hego laughed halfheartedly. "But don't you think the joke lasted long enough? I think it's time to tell the people the real deal."

Shego and Hego sat in the main room of the Go Tower, waiting for their other brothers in order to start the first Team Go meeting with full attendance in many years.

The former villainess smirked at her brother. "Hego, this is the real deal. You've been bumbling around with Team Go for far too long, and you've never been very successful. I've been one of the best villains over the past years, and even I saved the world more times then you did during that time."

"You don't get it," Hego objected stubbornly. "The leader of Team Go isn't just about who saved who most of the time. It's about integrity, heroism, altruism…"

"Yeah, that's why you accepted the tower without even a moment of hesitation," Shego retorted.

At that moment, Mego and the Wegos walked in. Shego's younger brothers immediately ran over to her. "Shego, you're back!"

"Awesome trick you pulled on Hego."

Mego, on the other hand, kept his distance. Although he did give Shego a small nod, which she returned in a similar dismissive way.

"I didn't know the leadership position was for grabs," the purple-clad hero remarked. "Ever occurred to you that I might want a shot at the position?"

Hego frowned and Shego snorted, much to Mego's annoyance. "What? I can make a good leader."

Hego thought for a moment. "Perhaps we should hold a vote then, to see which one the team wants as their leader."

Shego shook her head at the weak attempt to gain ground, but she agreed anyway. "Alright, who's voting for Mego?"

Only Mego raised his hand.

The young man glared sourly at his siblings. "Fine, if you don't want me as leader, sort it out yourselves."

As Mego stomped out of the room Shego watched him with a small grin; he would act all hurt and angry for a couple of minutes, and then his desire to be the center of attention would drive him right back to the team."

"And who's voting for Shego?" Hego asked.

Shego and the Wegos raised their hand.

Hego looked crestfallen at his brothers as Shego's grin grew. The younger brothers shrugged. "It might be good to have a bit of change around here."

"Besides, this way, Shego will stay here, at least for a while."

Not willing to give up yet, Hego decided to go for desperate measures. "The vote isn't over yet… uh… since I'm the oldest, my vote should count twice. And… uh… you're twins so your vote can only count as two halves… yeah… so we're tied."

Shego and ten copies of the Wegos looked at him in slight amusement, hands still raised.

"Tied, you say?" Shego asked innocently.

Hego began to sweat a little. "Well… using your powers doesn't count, so…"  
"Oh, cut it out already," Mego snapped from behind his older brother; Shego had been right, although even she had underestimated her brother's need to have people around him to whine to. "I'll vote for Shego too." He turned to Shego. "Now, will you at least let me be second in command?"

"You can't…" Hego started, but was quickly interrupted by Shego.

"Sure," the ex-villainess replied with a grin. "I'm certain Hego wouldn't mind, he never wanted to be second in command before anyway."

* * *

"Can you imagine?" Ron asked. "In just over a month, we'll both be headed for college, with an entire ocean between us."

"Ugh, don't remind me," Kim replied with a grimace. "I'm really looking forward to college, but knowing that I have to miss my dose of Ronshine for literally months almost makes me wish I would just stay here."

Ron sat up. "Really?"

Kim sighed, but she had a small smile on her face. "I'm sure we'll get through it. And besides, we'll probably see each other every now and then on the occasional mission. And of course during the holidays."

Ron chuckled. "Almost makes me wish Drakken's plan won't be a success."

Kim and Ron were spending their last few weeks before getting ready for the new school year in well-deserved relaxation. The summer vacation had been pretty busy so far with GJ's problems, the recovery from the Lowardian invasion and having the first college meetings, so the duo was relishing in this opportunity to just lie in the garden, gazing at clouds.

Kim sat up and grinned at her boyfriend. "Really? And here I thought I was the one who enjoyed fighting villains."

"I enjoy fighting them with _you_," Ron replied. "But yeah, I'd rather sit here and relax with you."

Kim chuckled. "I do have to admit, this is nice and relaxing. But we did agree to help Drakken with his plan."

"I know." Ron was silent in thought for a moment. "You know, I would never have guessed that Drakken could be that focused and determined. He should really have turned to the good side a lot sooner."

"Yeah," Kim agreed with a grin. "All we had to do was give him a chance to save the world instead of taking it over."

"I do hope they won't turn back again," Ron said. "Drakken is a pretty nice guy when he's not our arch foe."

Kim laughed. "Actually, he is. Well, we can do our share. We've been invited to meet up with the other teams to get Drakken's program really rolling."

* * *

"I don't get why we have to be here," Hego objected for the umpteenth time. "Why would we want to help a villain? Why would we even want to _associate_ with a villain?"

Even though Shego felt like bursting a vein, she somehow managed to prevent herself from tossing her brother through the wall. "First of, Drakken has turned good, watch the news," she replied through clenched teeth. "Second, _I _am associated with him, and I like it. So if you diss Dr. D, I'll give you a memory of Christmas past, got that?"

Hego gulped and shifted uncomfortably in his chair. But he remained quiet until the other attendees arrived.

Kim and Ron were the next to arrive. "Drakken not here yet?" Kim asked as they sat down after each taking a soda from the catering tray.

Shego shrugged. "I guess he's running late, he planned on traveling with Lucre."

"So they might be stuck in public transport for all we know?" Ron asked jokingly.

However, a few minutes later, Drakken and Frugal Lucre arrived, together with Hank Perkins.

"Sorry we're late," Drakken said in apology. "We met up with Hank and got sidetracked catching up on old times."

Shego frowned; Perkins had visited Drakken several times over the past month and they had held endless conversation then as well. But she chose to ignore it. "No problem, GJ's representative hasn't arrived yet anyway."

Assuming that the last attendee would arrive any moment, everyone took their seats at the table after grabbing something to drink if they had not done so already.

They were still looking through the notes that Perkins had prepared on Drakken's behalf when Will Du entered.

The agent apologized for being a bit late and then took a seat opposite to Team Go.

Hego smiled and nodded at Will. "Finally, someone who thinks on the same page."

Mego and the Wegos looked confused at their brother. "You know him?"

"Of course," the hero replied. "We met shortly after the start of Team Go. We always had a similar view on professionalism and how to best fight crime."

But as Hego looked at him expectantly, Will shook his head. "Sorry Hego, I used to think like you, but in the past year someone made me see my error. In fact," he added, looking straight at Kim. "I think she made a lot of us here rethink our ways."  
Shego grinned as she noticed the redhead's growing blush. "Come on princess, no reason to hide what you did. You even turned GJ's number one agent Du."

As Will shot Shego a look that remained somewhere between annoyed and amused, Kim desperately tried to hide her blush. However, since she had pulled her hair in a ponytail, she couldn't even hide behind her hair as she used to do when she was younger. "Can we please get started with the meeting?"

Wanting to regain the attention, Drakken nodded to Hank Perkins, who had been busy setting up a laptop and connecting it to the projector.

"As you have seen from the papers I provided you with, and from the presentations I have been giving over the past weeks, the program Bad to a Better Cause is ready to go, and the government is willing to allow a year-long trial," Drakken explained, then he looked at Will.

The agent nodded and rearranged his papers for a moment. "Mr. Lipsky agreed that Global Justice will be watching the program and receives full access to all the relevant files. We will compare data and determine which program is best for which villain."

"What about Team Go?" Mego asked. "What do we get to do?"

"And Team Possible," Ron added. "We've got college coming up, and I wasn't really planning on having all kinds of meetings to attend."

Drakken took over. "We would like to use Team Go and Team Possible as the basis for the reintegration program. Just like what happened to me, some villains may just be misunderstood. And when we give them a chance to do something good, they might like it enough to stay that way."

Kim frowned. "Enough villains we faced did evil for evil's sake. And then a lot are just after the money. Idealists are few and far between."

"And that is why we need to set up a personal profile for each villain and determine what is best," Will Du replied. "For now, we will only allow former villains to join crime fighters if they are really ready and willing to change."

"So, who do we get?" Hego asked. "Electronique? Is she still under the influence of the reverse polarizer?"

"She is," Will said. "But she won't be reintegrating until we know the full scope of the effects of that device. We wouldn't want her to turn back the same way she got good. For now, Team Go has Shego."

"WHAT?" Shego glared at Drakken, who looked back confused, and a bit frightened.

"You entered the program as well," the former villain weakly said. "You knew about that, right?"

"Do I look like I knew that?" Shego growled, then she turned to Will. "What is this? I turned good, I rejoined Team Go."

"Indeed." Will appeared to be completely unfazed. "So what's the harm in being in the program? You will still be doing what you did, and Global Justice already has your profile. Think of this as PR for the program."

Shego sat back, an angry frown still on her face. "Whatever. Don't keep me out of the loop next time."

"So who are we getting?" Ron asked, hoping to defuse the tension.

"For now, we don't have any suitable villains available," Will replied. "Mr. Perkins and Mr. Lurman continue to be part of the organization and other villains have yet to be profiled."

Kim looked at Lucre. "What about costs? We've been working mainly on favors, allowance and Wade's technical skill, and Team Go is subsidized by Go City, but I don't think either budget is really good for adding members to the teams, even temporary ones."

"If possible, the former villains will bring their own supplies," Frugal Lucre explained. "After they've been checked by Global Justice," he added after a look from Will. "As far as transportation and training goes, we are hoping for support from GJ."

Will Du nodded. "A request is in progress, and we should hear more of that soon."

"Alright," Kim said. "But since Ron and I will be busy with college soon, we might not be able to be of much help."

"That's fair," Drakken conceded. "We don't have villains available anyway."

Shego smirked. "Guess you never thought you'd say that, right?"

Several persons at the table struggled for a moment to keep a straight face, but then Drakken continued. "Are there any more points to discuss now?"

No other points were raised; Hego didn't dare to annoy Shego anymore than he already had that day, and Kim and Ron didn't feel too involved at the moment since they were more concerned about their scholarly future. So Drakken closed the meeting and thanked everyone for attending.

* * *

As Will left to get back to GJ, and Kim and Ron went into a bit of small talk with the rest of Team Go, Drakken turned to Shego. "How long will you be staying in Go City? I'm starting to miss you."

Shego smiled, something that still did not fail to amaze Drakken after all the smirks and mean grins he had received from her over the years. "Why don't you come down there some time? We can do dinner and a movie and forget about all the other stuff."

The former villain pondered it for a moment. "That does sound tempting…"

Shego grinned. "Good, it's settled then. How about Friday night? Pick me up at seven?"

As the green skinned woman left to collect Team Go to head back, Drakken was left trying to figure out what just happened.

* * *

"So, what do you think KP?" Ron asked as he and Kim drove back to Middleton. "A villain on our team, will it work?"

"We worked together with Drakken and Shego pretty well on occasion, even when they were still bad," Kim said. "I we get a villain who really wants to redeem himself, we shouldn't have too much trouble."

Ron grinned. "And what if we get someone like Junior? All clumsy and thinking they are great?"

"We'll send those to Bonnie," Kim replied with a smirk. "Seemed to have worked so far."

"You are evil when you want to be, Miss Possible," Ron chided with a grin.

"And don't you forget it," Kim replied with a smug grin.

"How do we go about fighting villains though?' Ron then asked. "We'll be a continent apart soon. And for some reason, images of extremely slow transportation pop into my mind when I think about that."

"Really?" Kim asked. "Like what?"

"Oh, I don't know… Snow crawlers, camels, elephants… that kind of stuff."

Kim chuckled. "Don't worry, I'm sure Wade can get us transportation. And we'll always have the Sloth."

Ron frowned. "Are you going to bring the car with you?"

"I don't know yet," Kim said. "It might be confusing, driving on the other side of the road. And I'll be practically living on campus anyway."

"Could I borrow it?" Ron asked hopefully. "I still have to commute the first year since I live too close to Upperton to go on the quick list for a dorm room."

"I'll think about it."

"Ah man," Ron sighed. "That means no."

"No, it means I'll think about it," Kim replied with a smirk. "This is going to be like that talk we had about being the team leader all over again, isn't it? Besides, you have your scooter."

"I can't go to college on a scooter," Ron complained. "That just screams 'freshman who lives with his parents'."

Kim chuckled. "Well, isn't that what you are?"

"Not helping KP," Ron muttered.

Kim stopped the car to wait for a traffic light and used to opportunity to bend over and kiss her boyfriend. "I'm just teasing you. Of course you can use the Sloth, as long as you're careful with it."

Ron smiled, although a bit embarrassed by his previous rant. "Thanks KP."

Kim smiled playfully as she drove on again when the light turned green. "Just remember, no open sodas in the car at any time."

Ron smiled. "I will. Hey, are we still on for dinner Friday? I mean, with all the preparations for college going on."

"Of course," Kim said. "Friday night is our night. And we won't have many more chances for a fancy dinner before I leave for England."

Ron made a mock sad face. "Fancy? You mean, no coloring book?"

"And no coupons," Kim added with a smirk.

* * *

**A/N:** I hope you liked this chapter, let me know what you thought of it. I hope to get more updates up sooner, but I can't promise anything.


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